Cartoon 759: Boomerang

In the last century the epitome of power was brute force destruction capability. The pinnacle was the nuclear bomb. This century has inaugurated a different class of consummate power. The new power resides in the cyber world of bits and bites.

No one is saying who created the Stuxnet “worm” used to attack Iran [actually it is a “rootkit” meaning able to take control]. If it was America that created it, America might have spent a 100 million dollars developing the software scheme for the worm. It is a Pandora’s box that has been opened. Unlike with nuclear power, the basic blue print for this type of worm is readily usable by many and already on the internet. The Christian Science Monitor mentioned some potential users such as other governments, corporations, individuals and organized crime.

There are several things a very successful “worm” must do. Be undetectable during infection, propagate, self-mutate and timed to act. A worm could quietly infect over years before it acts. Once it acts, the worm may be so embedded the only solution is to permanently shut off or destroy the infected entity. An even worst scenario is “ghosts in the machine”. An example would be a worm that infected the controls of a Boeing 787 jet in periodic unpredictable manners. There would be no consistency or predictability of when or what would happen next. Tracking it down would be a nightmare.

America has the greatest proliferation of software enabled technology both domestically and militarily. Cyber attacks are efficient, remote, and can be very difficult to trace back. It will likely be the weapon of choice when open warfare occurs. The most recent example is Russia. Reportedly it used a cyber attack as a prelude to its forces engaging Georgia in the dispute over South Ossetia.

Just like throwing a boomerang, the Stuxnet worm variations will return to haunt.