Summary: We begin our assessment of Stuxnet’s impact on the field of cyberwar. As a case-study of what appears to be a highly effective state-sponsored attack, Stuxnet has pushed the reality of cyberwar to center stage. This is the fourth in a series about cyberwar by FM co-author Marcus J. Ranum.
Article deleted at author’s request.
(7) For more information
(a) About Stuxnet:
- Stuxnet Under the Microscope, ESET (a cyber security company).
- Recommended: “The Stuxnet Computer Worm: Harbinger of an Emerging Warfare Capability“, Congressional Research Service, 9 December 2010.
- “Computer security: Is this the start of cyberwarfare?“, Sharon Weinberger, Nature, 8 June 2011 — “Last year’s Stuxnet virus attack represented a new kind of threat to critical infrastructure.”
- “Stuxnet as Cyberwarfare: Applying the Law of War to the Virtual Battlefield“, John C. Richardson (JMR Portfolio Intelligence), 22 July 2011.
- “Stuxnet: Cyber Conflict, Article 2(4), and the Continuum of Culpability“, Colin S. Crawford (Wake Forest U School of Law), 2011.
(b) About cyberwar:
- “Assessing the Risks of Cyber Terrorism, Cyber War and Other Cyber Threats“, James A. Lewis, Center for Strategic and International Studies, December 2002.
- “Meet Your New Commander-in-Geek“, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason, 26 May 2010 — “U.S. Cyber Command has no idea why it exists.” But their fear-mongering PR is first-rate.
- “China’s Emerging Cyber War Doctrine“, Gurmeet Kanwal, Journal of Defense Studies (Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis), July 2009.
- They cyber war threat has been grossly exaggerated, NPR, 8 June 2010 — Audio here.
- ‘Tehran’s Lost Connection“, Geneive Abdo, Foreign Policy, 10 June 2010 — “Is the Iranian regime’s cyberwar with the United States real, or a paranoid delusion?” — Abdo expects to know if the US waged cyberwar against Iran, ignoring our long history of covert offensive operations.
- “Reducing Systemic Cybersecurity Risk”, Peter Sommer (London School of Economics) and Ian Brown (Oxford), OECD, 14 January 2011.
- “Cyberwar an exaggerated threat“, UPI, 17 January 2011 — Says Peter Sommer, now of the London School of Economics and author of the Hacker’s Handbook (1985) under the pseudonym Hugo Cornwall.
- “Cyber war threat exaggerated claims security expert“, BBC, 16 February 2011 — Says Bruce Schneier, chief security officer for British Telecom.
- “Don’t Believe Scare Stories about Cyber War“, John Horgan, Scientific American, 3 June 2011.
