In the end, Stuxnet may have set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by years. But it also could prove a Pyrrhic victory for its still-unknown creator ”“ a sophisticated cyberweapons nation state that [ Ralph] Langner argues could be the US or Israel. Like the Hiroshima bomb, Stuxnet demonstrated for the first time a dangerous capability ”“ in this case to hackers, cybercrime gangs, and new cyberweapons states, he says in an interview.
With Stuxnet as a “blueprint” downloadable from the Internet, he says, “any dumb hacker” can now figure out how to build and sell cyberweapons to any hacktivist or terrorist who wants “to put the lights out” in a US city or “release a toxic gas cloud.”
What follows are excerpts of Langner’s comments from an extended interview:
Are we so dependent on computers and the internet that we can’t go manual? Sure interconnection is easy, but let’s not confuse easy with necessary.
true br. michael but if you suggest it you will be considered to be on par with granola eating tree hugger who wishes a return to the dark ages! :o]
i happen to agree with you… but then i’m a granola eating tree hugger.
Maybe, but I remember life without cell phones and the internet. We got along fine. I still don’t use my cell phone all that often. No one needs to be that in touch.
it’s the toxic releases that have me worried.