China hitting India via deadly internet worm?
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 11 October 2010, 22:20 IST   |    6 Comments
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China hitting India via deadly internet worm?
Bangalore: The deadly Stuxnet internet worm, which was thought to be targeting Iran's nuclear programme, might actually have been aimed at India by none other than China. Providing a fresh twist in the tale, well-known American Cyber Warfare Expert Jeffrey Carr, who specializes in investigations of cyber attacks against government, said that China, more than any other country, was likely to have written the worm which has terrorized the world since June. While Chinese hackers are known to target Indian government websites, the scale and sophistication of Stuxnet suggests that only a government no less than that of countries like U.S., Israel or China could have done it, reports Times of India. Alongwith Indonesia and Iran, India has had the maximum number of infections from Stuxnet which affects Windows computers and gets transmitted through USB sticks. While Iran and Indonesia had about 60,000 and 13,000 Stuxnet infections respectively till late September, India was at the third position with over 6,000 infections. The experts found that it infects only those computers which use certain Siemens software systems. Siemens software systems are used in many Indian government agencies including ISRO. Attributing the partial failure of ISRO INSAT 4B satellite a few months ago the exact reason for which is not yet known, to Stuxnet, Carr said it was China which gained from the satellite failure. According to Carr, the Siemens software in use in ISRO's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre is S7-400 PLC and SIMATIC WinCC, both of which, he said, would activate the Stuxnet worm. The Stuxnet worm was first discovered in June this year, a month before INSAT 4B was hit by the mysterious power failure.

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