Mystery Computer Worm Part Of Global Cyber War
The Stuxnet computer worm that appears aimed at undermining Iran’s nuclear program is part of a worsening phenomenon. Half of all companies running “critical infrastructure” systems worldwide say they have sustained politically motivated attacks.
A global survey of such attacks – rarely acknowledged in public because of their potential to cause alarm – found companies estimated they had suffered an average of 10 instances of cyber war or cyber terrorism in the past five years at a cost of $US850,000 ($880,000) a company.
Those figures, though, are only a start. Nearly half of the companies surveyed were convinced the volume and virulence of the attacks will escalate.
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The report, commissioned by the computer security giant Symantec, surveyed 1580 companies globally connected with critical infrastructure such as banks, emergency services, telecommunications and utilities. The findings show nowhere is immune.
As elsewhere, the 150 Australian businesses surveyed cited attacks that tried to steal information, degrade computer networks, manipulate physical equipment through software and destroy electronic data.
“Attacks on critical infrastructure are real, and more and more companies believed they are politically motivated, that they’re increasing in frequency,” ? said Symantec’s vice-president for the Pacific, ? Craig Scroggie.
The report, to be published internationally today, comes amid warnings by Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, that the Stuxnet worm had the capacity to harm world economic development and the Iranian Foreign Ministry reigniting claims that the West had unleashed the worm to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. The government or cyber criminal gang responsible for the worm remains a mystery.