Striking Facts About Governments’ Hack Wars

In the cold war of the digital age, The new front line of governments is the internet. Keyboards and codes are now at the forefront instead of tanks and planes. Governments are trying to gain cyber superiority by targeting important institutions and critical infrastructures of rival countries.

Who are the players in this secret war? Hacker groups and covert operations units. They are out of sight Moves that could change the balance on the world stage doing.

Every year, the US agency National Security Agency publishes a document titled Worldwide Threat Assessment that summarizes the biggest threats to national security.

From cyber security first mentioned in 2011 but it was not given much importance. Just two years later, it became the number one threat and has maintained that position ever since.

All defense departments of nation states are already dedicated to combating cybersecurity threats in case. But some nations have not only defense but also cyber attacks.

In 2010, a new strain of malware hit thousands of computers worldwide. Stuxnet The worm, called , was designed to target Windows computers running SCADA software. SCADA developed by Siemens, It stands for Supervisory Control and Data Collection.

SCADA, controlling power grids and was used to manage. Stuxnet’s main goal was to hijack the computers controlling the power supply and begin systematically shutting down their PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers).

Stuxnet’s ultimate target was Iran’s first nuclear enrichment facility, which is expected to open in October.

First of all, these facilities extremely well protected let’s say. They are not connected to the internet in a way that someone could simply download a virus. To enter the facility physically It had to be entered.

500 kilobytes The worm was released in Iran and distributed to companies designing PLCs. One of these companies was Bepajo, an engineering firm geographically located around Iran’s nuclear facilities.

As a result of a few unfortunate coincidences, 3 employees discovered a virus that infected their computers. He carried it to the heart of the facility without realizing it. After a while, inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency discovered that nuclear centrifuges why so often He started to wonder if it was malfunctioning. There was a problem… And a kind that no one could understand.

5 months later, the computer security team set out to investigate why computers in Iran were going crazy.

What they encounter is Stuxnet, which is perhaps what the world has seen. It was the first digital weapon. However, before this worm got to work, it had already taken action and started to disrupt the operation of the facility. In a few months, 328 centrifuges became trash. It was as if a sniper was targeting one by one…

By November, that number had jumped to 984. Iran’s nuclear plans was seriously hit. It’s still unknown how far the worm can actually go or what other surprises it’s up to.

Thus The USA and Israel took responsibility for this incident and accepted it. Officials announced that the program was first developed during the Bush administration and continued during the Obama administration.

One of the biggest events of the digital age took place in 2012, 2 years after the emergence of Stuxnet.

A virus called “Shamoon” appeared on the scene and launched a hacking attack that shook the world. This virus is the oil giant Saudi Aramco targeted and virtually paralyzed the company. Saudi Aramco is Providing 10% of the world’s oil a giant company.

This attack During Ramadan, when most employees are on holiday occurred and affected 35,000 computers, rendering them unusable. A burning American flag appeared on the computer screens.

Saudi Aramco’s computer technicians discovered the virus to prevent further spread He found the solution by taking computers offline. This event almost sent the company back to the stone age, with paper and pencil They started doing business.

Oil distribution resumed after 17 days, but in the process, the company caused a hard disk shortage because they collected every disc they had.

To fix this attack, Saudi Aramco hired an army of IT experts.

5 months after the attack, they brought their systems back online with much stronger cybersecurity measures. However Who is behind this attack? has never been determined with certainty.

Then we jump to 2016 and whoops! The political scene in America is heated. There’s an election pitting Clinton and Trump, and everything is getting more and more polarized. Clinton’s emails were leaked and Russian hacker groups It turned out that it was made by.

Today, to influence a country just a laptop and internet connection It may be sufficient. Cyber ​​security threats are now on the radar not only of hackers but also of nation states.

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