What is Cyber Warfare?

Cyber warfare is the use of computer networks to carry out the agenda, of a nation or group.  Often the agenda is of a political nature to steal information or carry out some type of sabotage.

I have recently come across a great example of this named: Stuxnet.

Stuxnet, a virus created in 2010 is my favorite current example of cyber warfare.  This virus has unknown origins. However it has been rumored that it was designed by a U.S./ Israel partnership to disrupt Iran's nuclear program.

The Stuxnet virus was designed to go from the Microsoft windows operating system to an operating system created for Siemens to control and manage the production of centrifuges that Iran was procuring (illegally).  These centrifuges had their own software that was then infected.  

After the centrifuges made it to Iran the brilliance of the virus began to show itself.  While the Iranian scientists were trying to enrich uranium the centrifuges would spin erratically eliminating the possibility of concentration.  The hardware on the centrifuges was designed to show the errors however the virus was designed the cover up the error.  So the scientists didn't know why the kept failing at the enrichment process!

This virus was introduced via a flash drive after creation to an unknown computer.  It has infected 60 percent of PC's in Iran and only 1.56 percent in the U.S. even though it has the potential for many more.  

Stuxnet was not designed to cause any abnormal behavior on regular PC's. If it infects a regular computer it will sit dormant until it finds the Siemens software and then it will make its move.  

This virus has been called the first digital weapon and was a first of its kind.  

Stuxnet is Cyber warfare.

Thanks for reading!