Cyberweapon (Stuxnet)
Ciberarma (Stuxnet)
- Date
- 2010 · confidence high
- Place
- Attributed to the United States and Israel (NSA, Unit 8200); target in Natanz, Iran
- Credited to
- Attributed to the NSA and Israel's Unit 8200 (Operation Olympic Games); never officially acknowledged
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A computer worm that physically sabotaged Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges by manipulating their industrial controllers. It was the first cyberattack with documented physical effects.
Authorship rests on journalistic leaks and forensic analysis; no government has acknowledged it.
What it led to
- Cyberwarfare between states and military cyber commands
- The vulnerability of critical infrastructure (NotPetya, Colonial Pipeline)
- The market for zero-day vulnerabilities
Built on
- Public-key cryptography (Diffie-Hellman)1976
- computer worms (Morris, 1988)
- programmable logic controllers
Made possible
- cyberdefence of critical infrastructure
- cyberwarfare doctrine