The United States sanctions ten individuals and two entities, all affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for their role in conducting malicious cyber acts, including ransomware activity. These designations are part of a joint action with the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, USCYBERCOM, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Ransomware incidents have disrupted critical services and businesses around the world. Ransomware actors and other cybercriminals target businesses and critical infrastructure and threaten the physical security and economy of the United States and other nations. The United States is taking action today to combat and deter ransomware threats.
Concurrent with these designations, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, is highlighting three individuals in its offer of rewards for information on foreign malicious cyber activity against infrastructure criticism of the United States. Under this reward offer, the Department is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or control of a foreign government, engages in cyber activities against US critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Today’s actions demonstrate our commitment to disrupting ransomware actors and infrastructure. The United States will not tolerate malicious cyber activities that are the backbone of the US economy and critical infrastructure.
For more information on today’s actions, see the Department of Finance’s press release and RFJ’s announcement.
How could Stuxnet been prevented?
Through encryption and key management, Iran could have prevented Stuxnet from modifying the source code that caused its servers to self-destruct. The effects of the Stuxnet worm were devastating to Natanz and other industrial facilities in Iran. It is estimated that their nuclear projects were pushed back by about four months.
How can Stuxnet be prevented? There is currently no antivirus to catch and control Stuxnet once it is on your network. This may interest you : United States Takes Next Step in Support of Innovative Clean Nuclear Technology in Europe – United States Department of State. The best thing you can do is avoid this by implementing the following: Set up a layered defense that addresses security across the entire extended ICS network.
How was Stuxnet controlled?
Stuxnet specifically targets programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which enable the automation of electromechanical processes such as those used to control machinery and industrial processes, including gas centrifuges for separating nuclear material.
How was Stuxnet disrupted?
June 17, 2010 â VirusBlokAda in Belarus discovers Stuxnet when an Iranian customer contacts them about Windows machines that were rebooting involuntarily and continuously. Read also : Memorandum on the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
Why Stuxnet is called the first cyber weapon?
Although the attack had a direct impact on the operations of the Iranian nuclear refining facility, Stuxnet has been credited with showing the ability of cyber-based attacks to have a direct impact on systems and processes physical This may interest you : Ukraine sends more food as concern over giant nuclear plant grows.
What was the world’s first real cyber weapon? This piece, purportedly based on the testimony of several current and former American, European and Israeli officials, stated that Stuxnet, “the world’s first cyberweapon”3 was designed by the United States and Israel as part of a broad covert . operation aimed at undermining Iran’s nuclear…
What is the first confirmed Digital weapon?
Stuxnet was first identified by the infosec community in 2010, but its development likely began in 2005. The US and Israeli governments intended Stuxnet to be a tool to derail, or at least delay, the Iranian program to develop nuclear weapons.
What is Stuxnet and why is it significant to cybersecurity?
Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm first discovered in 2010 and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and believed to be responsible for causing substantial damage to Iran’s nuclear program.
How did Iran respond to Stuxnet?
The communications minister says Iranian scientists have created a firewall to prevent computer viruses from damaging infrastructure, such as a bug that damaged nuclear centrifuges. Iran has developed software to protect its cyberspace against attacks like the Stuxnet virus, an Iranian government official said Thursday.
What was the impact of the Stuxnet attack? Stuxnet appears to have ruined nearly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. Targeting industrial control systems, the worm infected more than 200,000 computers and caused 1,000 machines to physically degrade.
How was Stuxnet stopped?
After the Natanz attack, Stuxnet faded from mainstream headlines for a couple of years, but made a brief comeback in 2016, when a Microsoft security intelligence report identified it among malware families related to exploits detected in the second half of 2015.
What did Stuxnet do to Iran?
Stuxnet was the first virus that caused the physical destruction of infected devices. It severely crippled Iran’s nuclear program, although the malware also accidentally spread beyond the confines of Iran’s nuclear facilities due to its aggressive nature.
What happened after Stuxnet?
A decade after Stuxnet, SafeBreach Labs researchers discovered new zero-day vulnerabilities related to the threat, which they unveiled at Black Hat USA 2020. The Stuxnet threat lives on, thanks to the discovery of new vulnerabilities of zero day connected to an old one. Microsoft Windows error.
