

Worm Was Perfect for Sabotaging Centrifuges - yagibear
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/world/middleeast/19stuxnet.html

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roel_v
I'm tremendously jealous of whoever got to write it. To get paid for
(probably) months or years to work on something of this technical
sophistication, with (I guess) virtually unlimited resources and access to
technical details us mere mortals would never get their hands on; it's an
awesome project to hack on. It's really a clashing if raw mind power - pulling
out everything you have, with great resources behind you, to beat the
defenders who are doing everything they can to stop you.

~~~
user24
yeah, and the thrill of not knowing whether you'll be quietly disappeared when
you finish the job, and if not, how cool would it be if your code all worked
perfectly and the nuclear reactor did blow up! Really awesome. I think I'll
stick with web development though.

~~~
roel_v
I've never heard of rumors (let alone proof) of people working on military
project who all of a sudden start disappearing. The Washington DC area should
be full of stories of engineers who went MIA. The 'risk' surely doesn't stop
1000's of NSA, FBI and military personnel and contractors to work there.

I guess you can debate the morality of developing weapons. I'd say that
blowing up an Iranian nuclear bomb factory is a net positive. But that's
irrelevant to my point, which was how great it would be to work on a cutting
edge project with heaps of resources.

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borism
Is there any evidence it was created in the US of A?

Anyway, yes, you can disappear even if you're citizen of USA:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_detainees_at_Guantanam...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_detainees_at_Guantanamo_Bay)

and there are countries with even more lax standarts:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu>

~~~
berntb
Irregular combatants aren't protected by anything. (And regular combatants can
be jailed until the conflict is over, which seems to be never.)

Democracies go crazy when they get terror problems and throw out the law books
-- see e.g. Germany, Italy, Israel, GB and USA. (I assume that is because
voters get upset and votes out politicians that seems to be soft.)

Vanunu published maximum top secret information for a country with not only a
terror problem, but an _existential threat_. Check Gerald Bull for what can
happen -- or look what happened in Iran last year, when people complained
about a stolen election and the Republican Guard felt threatened.

Edit: Fixed grammar/clarity a little. What I really wanted to say was -- I
don't want a job like that. First, security is theoretically interesting but
painful to work with in practice. Second, the bureaucracy will be horrible.
State jobs without transparency are horribly inefficient and boring. Think bad
tasting coffee, no flex, etc.

Edit 2: The nuclear capability was known, but not confirmed (still today,
afaik). Also, if someone murders someone that is found out to have terminal
cancer -- should they get a shorter punishment...? They must put pressure on
Vanunu as a message to the next one talking too much; also game theory 101.

~~~
borism
Vanunu just confirmed what was public secret, and Israel doesn't seem to be
doing too badly after that. Game theory 101 - if you have Doomsday Device, let
the World know about it!

In fact there probably would have been less of a need for Stuxnet, were it not
for Vanunu!

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jbyers
...But We Can't Say for Sure It Did

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tectonic
Still, thoroughly fascinating.

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webXL
Did the CIA install their "LAN"? How else would a worm be able to hit
something so sensitive? Sneakernet?

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daeken
Sneakernet from internet-infected machines, via USB drives.

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aaronbrethorst
It isn't Kiev, and there's no Major Corto but, still, wow.

