Ralph Langner: Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon

310,465 views ・ 2011-03-29

TED


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00:15
The idea behind the Stuxnet computer worm
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is actually quite simple.
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We don't want Iran to get the bomb.
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Their major asset for developing nuclear weapons
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is the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
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The gray boxes that you see,
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these are real-time control systems.
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Now if we manage to compromise these systems
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that control drive speeds and valves,
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we can actually cause a lot of problems
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with the centrifuge.
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The gray boxes don't run Windows software;
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they are a completely different technology.
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But if we manage
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to place a good Windows virus
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on a notebook
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that is used by a maintenance engineer
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to configure this gray box,
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then we are in business.
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And this is the plot behind Stuxnet.
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So we start with a Windows dropper.
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The payload goes onto the gray box,
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damages the centrifuge,
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and the Iranian nuclear program is delayed --
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mission accomplished.
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That's easy, huh?
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I want to tell you how we found that out.
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When we started our research on Stuxnet six months ago,
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it was completely unknown what the purpose of this thing was.
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The only thing that was known
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is it's very, very complex on the Windows part, the dropper part,
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used multiple zero-day vulnerabilities.
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And it seemed to want to do something
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with these gray boxes, these real-time control systems.
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So that got our attention,
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and we started a lab project
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where we infected our environment with Stuxnet
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and checked this thing out.
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And then some very funny things happened.
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Stuxnet behaved like a lab rat
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that didn't like our cheese --
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sniffed, but didn't want to eat.
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Didn't make sense to me.
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And after we experimented with different flavors of cheese,
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I realized, well, this is a directed attack.
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It's completely directed.
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The dropper is prowling actively
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on the gray box
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if a specific configuration is found,
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and even if the actual program code that it's trying to infect
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is actually running on that target.
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And if not, Stuxnet does nothing.
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So that really got my attention,
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and we started to work on this
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nearly around the clock,
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because I thought, "Well, we don't know what the target is.
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It could be, let's say for example,
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a U.S. power plant,
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or a chemical plant in Germany.
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So we better find out what the target is soon."
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So we extracted and decompiled
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the attack code,
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and we discovered that it's structured in two digital bombs --
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a smaller one and a bigger one.
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And we also saw that they are very professionally engineered
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by people who obviously had all insider information.
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They knew all the bits and bites
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that they had to attack.
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They probably even know the shoe size of the operator.
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So they know everything.
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And if you have heard that the dropper of Stuxnet
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is complex and high-tech,
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let me tell you this:
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the payload is rocket science.
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It's way above everything
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that we have ever seen before.
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Here you see a sample of this actual attack code.
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We are talking about --
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around about 15,000 lines of code.
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Looks pretty much like old-style assembly language.
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And I want to tell you how we were able
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to make sense out of this code.
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So what we were looking for is, first of all, system function calls,
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because we know what they do.
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And then we were looking for timers and data structures
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and trying to relate them to the real world --
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to potential real world targets.
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So we do need target theories
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that we can prove or disprove.
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In order to get target theories,
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we remember
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that it's definitely hardcore sabotage,
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it must be a high-value target
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and it is most likely located in Iran,
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because that's where most of the infections had been reported.
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Now you don't find several thousand targets in that area.
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It basically boils down
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to the Bushehr nuclear power plant
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and to the Natanz fuel enrichment plant.
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So I told my assistant,
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"Get me a list of all centrifuge and power plant experts from our client base."
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And I phoned them up and picked their brain
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in an effort to match their expertise
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with what we found in code and data.
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And that worked pretty well.
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So we were able to associate
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the small digital warhead
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with the rotor control.
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The rotor is that moving part within the centrifuge,
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that black object that you see.
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And if you manipulate the speed of this rotor,
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you are actually able to crack the rotor
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and eventually even have the centrifuge explode.
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What we also saw
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is that the goal of the attack
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was really to do it slowly and creepy --
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obviously in an effort
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to drive maintenance engineers crazy,
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that they would not be able to figure this out quickly.
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The big digital warhead -- we had a shot at this
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by looking very closely
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at data and data structures.
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So for example, the number 164
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really stands out in that code;
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you can't overlook it.
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I started to research scientific literature
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on how these centrifuges
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are actually built in Natanz
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and found they are structured
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in what is called a cascade,
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and each cascade holds 164 centrifuges.
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So that made sense, that was a match.
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And it even got better.
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These centrifuges in Iran
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are subdivided into 15, what is called, stages.
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And guess what we found in the attack code?
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An almost identical structure.
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So again, that was a real good match.
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And this gave us very high confidence for what we were looking at.
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Now don't get me wrong here, it didn't go like this.
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These results have been obtained
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over several weeks of really hard labor.
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And we often went into just a dead end
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and had to recover.
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Anyway, so we figured out
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that both digital warheads
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were actually aiming at one and the same target,
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but from different angles.
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The small warhead is taking one cascade,
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and spinning up the rotors and slowing them down,
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and the big warhead
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is talking to six cascades
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and manipulating valves.
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So in all, we are very confident
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that we have actually determined what the target is.
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It is Natanz, and it is only Natanz.
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So we don't have to worry
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that other targets
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might be hit by Stuxnet.
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Here's some very cool stuff that we saw --
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really knocked my socks off.
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Down there is the gray box,
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and on the top you see the centrifuges.
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Now what this thing does
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is it intercepts the input values from sensors --
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so for example, from pressure sensors
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and vibration sensors --
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and it provides legitimate program code,
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which is still running during the attack,
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with fake input data.
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And as a matter of fact, this fake input data
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is actually prerecorded by Stuxnet.
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So it's just like from the Hollywood movies
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where during the heist,
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the observation camera is fed with prerecorded video.
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That's cool, huh?
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The idea here is obviously
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not only to fool the operators in the control room.
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It actually is much more dangerous and aggressive.
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The idea
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is to circumvent a digital safety system.
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We need digital safety systems
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where a human operator could not act quick enough.
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So for example, in a power plant,
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when your big steam turbine gets too over speed,
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you must open relief valves within a millisecond.
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Obviously, this cannot be done by a human operator.
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So this is where we need digital safety systems.
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And when they are compromised,
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then real bad things can happen.
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Your plant can blow up.
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And neither your operators nor your safety system will notice it.
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That's scary.
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But it gets worse.
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And this is very important, what I'm going to say.
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Think about this:
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this attack is generic.
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It doesn't have anything to do, in specifics,
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with centrifuges,
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with uranium enrichment.
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So it would work as well, for example,
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in a power plant
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or in an automobile factory.
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It is generic.
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And you don't have -- as an attacker --
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you don't have to deliver this payload
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by a USB stick,
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as we saw it in the case of Stuxnet.
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You could also use conventional worm technology for spreading.
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Just spread it as wide as possible.
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And if you do that,
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what you end up with
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is a cyber weapon of mass destruction.
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That's the consequence
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that we have to face.
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So unfortunately,
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the biggest number of targets for such attacks
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are not in the Middle East.
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They're in the United States and Europe and in Japan.
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So all of the green areas,
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these are your target-rich environments.
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We have to face the consequences,
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and we better start to prepare right now.
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Thanks.
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09:43
(Applause)
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Chris Anderson: I've got a question.
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Ralph, it's been quite widely reported
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that people assume that Mossad
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is the main entity behind this.
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Is that your opinion?
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Ralph Langner: Okay, you really want to hear that?
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Yeah. Okay.
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My opinion is that the Mossad is involved,
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but that the leading force is not Israel.
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So the leading force behind that
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is the cyber superpower.
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There is only one,
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and that's the United States --
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fortunately, fortunately.
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Because otherwise,
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our problems would even be bigger.
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CA: Thank you for scaring the living daylights out of us. Thank you, Ralph.
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(Applause)
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