Research on a recent (2012-2013) malware attack Paper

On a recent (2012-2013) malware attack - Research Paper Example This paper seeks to give an in-depth analysis of the Stuxnex virus. Stuxnet is a very complex computer virus, which was observed to be specifically designed for industrial appliances attack. In this regard, it would affect the operation of the industrial devices and could lead to failure of the system. According to Ricks (2012), Stuxnet virus was designed and deployed by American and Israel intelligence in a bid to bring down the Iranian nuclear plant. The designing of the Stuxnet virus dates back from the time George W. Bush was the American president, and was accelerated to its completion under Obama’s first term as the American president (Sanger, 2012). The joint project between the American and the Israel intelligence personnel was implemented under the code â€Å"Olympic games.† The main target was the Iranian military-industrial complex in a bid to hamper its operations, thus making them incapable on continuing with their development on nuclear weapons (Sanger, n.d.). The first deployment was done in 2008 and 2009, and the target s were Natanz nuclear enrichment. At first, it was thought the failure in the operations of the plant was due to incompetence of the Iranian officials mandated to monitor it. For security reasons, computers  for  monitoring and controlling the operation of the plant were not connected to the internet. The virus was to be spread using removable devices. When the devices were plugged into the computers, the virus software would record the operations of the Centrifuges, after which it would interfere with the normal operations of the centrifuges; thus, bringing down the plant. This was the only route through which the virus could be introduced to the nuclear plant as the American and Israel intelligence officials did not have access to the plant; workers, who include engineers and maintenance personnel, were used to infect the plant with the virus through