Showing posts with label new scientist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new scientist. Show all posts

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Stuxnet And The Confounded Mullahs

A comparison of the sizes Pentagon etc.Image via Wikipedia
New Scientist: Stuxnet: the online front line: Stuxnet, the computer worm running rampant in Iran's nuclear facilities ..... a few lines of malicious computer code can trip electricity grids, burn out power-station generators, pollute water supplies and sabotage gas pipelines. ....... Where regular worms merely infect computer systems, stuxnet can reach out into the physical world. It uses vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows to give an attacker remote control of the specialised factory-floor computers used to control industrial processes. ..... The worm can allow attackers to run motors so fast they burn out, to turn off alarms and safety cut-offs, open effluent valves and activate pumps - in other words, carry out industrial sabotage and skulduggery on a massive scale.
Unless we have some high tech mullahs in Iran, my guess is they are one confounded crowd. As to the origins of stuxnet, your guess is as good as mine. It is possible this has been the work of the Pentagon, like the Iranian regime has been claiming, possibly even the work of Israel, but I doubt that. Biblical references in malicious code do not prove the worm is Israel's work. It is very possible some teenager cowboys, either in Israel or America, and as much likely elsewhere, took it upto themselves to tickle the Iranian regime a little.

Whoever might be behind this, and we might not even know, very likely, this stunt has rattled the mullahs like threats of economic sanctions have not so far.

When they start arresting "spies" is when you know they got it all wrong. That is a symptom of being confounded. Obviously you do not have to be inside of Iran to pull this stunt. That is the whole point of cyber attacks.

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An IP Address For Your Heart

New Scientist: Body organs can send status updates to your cellphone: wireless body area network (BAN). Dubbed the Human++ BAN platform ..... The next step will be to use an ultra-low-power radio transmitter, still in development at IMEC, to improve the stamina and portability of the sensors. .... "telehealth" monitoring like this

This totally chimes in with my thought expressed at this blog a few times that most tweets in the future will not emanate from human fingers. Looks like some of them will emanate from the heart.

New Scientist

Evidence of water in megacanyon on Mars
Water cycle goes bust as the world gets warmer
Quantum thermometers usher in the big chill
Evidence of water in megacanyon on Mars
Deep space drama: Top 10 views of the southern skies
Tune in to the live whale song network
Sweaty palms and puppy love: The physiology of voting
Chemistry Nobel winner: My work is not done
Stuxnet: the online front line
Ancient tattoos linked to healing ritual
Black widow pulsar is fattest collapsed star yet
Exoskeleton helps the paralysed walk again
Extreme PowerPoint: a 3D slide show
Innovation: Online army turns the tide on automation
Audio zoom picks out lone voice in the crowd
Andre Geim: Why graphene is the stuff of the future
Breaking the noise barrier: Enter the phonon computer
Scratched glasses give perfect vision
Ditch the glasses for lifelike 3D
White House turns green with solar panels
Physicists win Nobel using sticky tape and pencil
First frictionless superfluid molecules created
Wind farms make like a fish and shoal



New Scientist: Nanotechnology

Introduction: Nanotechnology
Nanotech: The shape of things to come
Work light twice as hard to make cheap solar cells
Electron vortex could trap atoms
Nano-engineered cotton promises to wipe out water bugs
Medical nanotech could find unconventional oil
Real invisibility threads would be fit for an emperor
Antibacterial socks may boost greenhouse emissions
Quantum electron 'submarines' help push atoms around
Graphene bubbles mimic explosive magnetic field
Say Cheese (Monstera Deliciosa)Image by grytr via FlickrGrow-your-own approach to wiring 3D chips
Casimir effect put to work as a nano-switch

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