2010 in Review: The Hype and Reality of Stuxnet

[Peaches]

Dec12

2010 in Review: The Hype and Reality of Stuxnet

Rightly or wrongly, the most talked about issue in the security industry for 2010 has been Stuxnet. Some of this attention is rightly due to the attack’s sophistication, but even more is due to breathless speculation about “cyber-warfare”, the alleged links to Israel and Iran, and speculation about the foreign policy effects of Stuxnet. However, all this media attention has tended to cloud the issue.

For users who are not in charge of critical systems, the danger from Stuxnet has to be placed in the proper context. Credential theft malware poses a far greater threat. In addition, it should be remembered that threats targeting critical systems are likely to be just that–targeted. The typical user is more likely to see more generic threats like credential theft and fake antivirus malware.

The bottom line is that while Stuxnet has enjoyed a great deal of media attention, it’s more significant as a warning to system administrators to secure critical systems–even the ones they think wouldn’t be exposed to malware–than as an actual threat. It’s a problem that has to be placed in the context of the greater malware threat, which sees tens of thousands of new threats every day, the vast majority of which end up stealing user information.

Full story here: http://blog.trendmicro.com/