Cyberattacks are on the rise. There is a methodology behind what hackers do. Most have a systematic way of attacking a network and getting into a system to hack computers. Many will send out emails, design a website, or come up with a specific computer program to solicit the information they need to breach a computer’s security network.
The National Security Agency working with the Israeli Military recently developed a cyber-war campaign in an effort to attack computers and control Iran’s nuclear war center at Natanz. Information about how this campaign program worked became public, providing information on exactly how a cyber war campaign works.
The Program Of Cyber War
Recently programmers working with the National Security Agency along with Israeli military created various worms attacking computers controlling nuclear enrichment centers in Iran. These attacks occurred repeatedly to make it difficult to detect them. Here is an example of how a cyber war campaign works.
A cyber attack program first begins with cyber programmers writing a program that might be called a beacon to map out how something works at a plant. Then this beacon program is introduced into a computer that controls operations at a plant, typically introduced by someone that may open an email or deliver a computer program.
Next the program or beacon will collect information about how the computers in a plant are configured and how they transmit information to various intelligence agencies within an organization or country. Using the information that is collected, computer programmers will design a “worm” which will be used to disrupt operations at the plant.
Using one of many different methods, or several methods, this new worm program is then introduced into the plant’s computer system which can run several different vehicles and operations. In this case the worm took over centrifuges at the nuclear plant, and made them spin faster or slower than they were supposed to, causing them to become unbalanced and explode.
Next, new variations of the worm are developed causing new failures to occur within the plant. These are then introduced. At this point in the process of the cyber war campaign, Iranians discovered the worm and took measures to protect their centrifuges, but much damage had already been done, and the programmers and hackers were already designing new attacks.
This is a simple example of how a cyber war campaign can be started. A small tool called a beacon or other computer program is usually all a hacker will need to cause chaos within an organization. It is basically an information gathering process. The disruption in services can happen on just one occasion, or multiple times over many weeks, a month, or several months.
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