Vulnerability of North Anna Nuclear Generating Station in Virginia Essay

Vulnerability of North Anna Nuclear Generating Station in Virginia - Essay Example Believed to have been formed by Israel and the US, Stuxnet was discovered in June 2010 and is a computer worm whose purpose was attacking the nuclear facilities in Iran. It put off safety apparatus, resulting in centrifuges spinning out of control. Originally, Stuxnet spread through Microsoft Windows, targeting Siemens Industrial control systems. Although this is not the first instance industrial systems have been targeted by hackers, Stuxnet happens to be the first discovered invented malware capable of spying and subverting industrial systems in addition to being the first to incorporate a programmable logic controller(PLC) root kit (Kuperman, 2013). Such cyber worms as Stuxnet can be used to wreck havoc in nuclear facilities leading to untold of damage and destruction to not only the economy but also US citizens. For instance, Stuxnet has been used before to target 5 organizations in Iran, with the likely target broadly alleged to be uranium enrichment facilities in Iran. In addition, Symantec in August 2010 noted that sixty percent of the computers infected globally were in Iran. Further claims by Siemens stated that Stuxnet had not damaged any of its customers’ infrastructures .However the Iran nuclear program that makes use of embargoed Siemens apparatus secretly procured had been infected by Stuxnet. This vulnerability can be used by terrorists to damage North Anna Nuclear Generating Station in Mineral, Virginia (Kuperman, 2013).