How Cyberwarfare Actually Works

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References
[1] This is How They Tell Me the World Ends - Nicole Perlroth
[2] Countdown to Zero Day - Kim Zetter

Select footage courtesy Getty and AP; Select imagery courtesy Geolayers; Select music courtesy Epidemic sound

[Oliver-egwg]

02:18
Sam : “This new era was made possible”
Me : “by skillshare, an online learnin…”
Sam : “by one single concept.”
Me : Oh

[berttorpson]

"This new era was made possible" my brain finished the sentence "with skillshare" you've ruined me

[triptheroad]

The fact that they found that many obscure bugs and managed to package them all together and transmit them across the network intact as printer metadata is absolutely amazing

[TheLouisianan]

FYI, the reason those centrifuges are so fickle ( said around 9:47) is because of the precise balancing and precision you need on the bearings to separate Uranium 235 from 238. They need an air layer in the bearings (because mechanical bearings with an oil layer can't go to high enough RPM and aren't precise enough) I.E. gas or magnetic bearings to work correctly which need final tuning to make the system run correctly. It would be incredibly easy to just change 1 or 2 parameters that would make a mag bearing system rotate out of orbit and they can literally tear themselves apart if you wanted it to. Stuxnet running at bad RPM ranges likely caused the motors and bearing stators to run at bad efficiency (creating a lot more heat) which can "cook" your mag bearings, motor, and stator by basically annealing the laminar sheets of steel and changes their characteristics (which also removes their magnetism and makes them run horribly). This would likely do this to the motor stator and rotors as well.

[AhmedW-syti]

But the real question is: How would this affect airline logistics?

[chrome]

3:29 For anyone interested: this is only partially true. A zero day IS a bug, but not every bug is a 0-day. A 0-day is a bug that the vendor of the product in question has known about since 0 days (so: they don’t know about it while it is already being exploited/found by someone else)

[yitzakIr]

The lesson is listen to your programmers when they tell you they need more time. ESPECIALLY if you work on something critical.

[mikvance]

Wendover: "No one has officially accepted responsibility for creating Stuxnet."
US & Israel: (holding back giggles)

[AdamEmond]

Nothing like an existential crisis on a Tuesday's lunch break!

[themisir]

Correction: zero day is a case when discovered vulnerability haven't been fixed yet. Not all software bugs are zero day. Only the ones that's discovered and used before software manufacturer produced a patch to fix it.

[thshard]

When it comes to cyberwarfare, every nation with sense operates on a policy of 'Those in the know aren't talking, and only those who are not in the know are talking.' I once chatted with one of their ex-security guys and apparently Fort Meade is so insanely paranoid when it comes to security, they immediately began renovations on their headquarters when some college discovered a way to get wireless data through the massive Faraday cage already cladding those buildings. These are the same guys that encase every wire coming into Fort Meade inside sensor-lined concrete.

[ericdiaz]

I'm a programmer and a hobby hacker. I expected some flaws since no one can make accurate cyber security videos. However, you did a really good job. Thoroughly enjoyed this one, thanks!

[coldham]

Stuxnet was a beautifully designed and engineered virus. The story behind it is fascinating and I encourage everyone to read up about it. Not to discount Sam's video. He does a great job.

[zancloufer]

A few years ago when they started making fridges, stoves and other "smart" appliances I half joked that hooking your toaster doesn't do much more than making is possible for someone to burn you house down remotely.
Not sure if it's a good thing that I was right. Internet connection for 90% of devices is useless and pretty much just an extra thing to go wrong and a vulnerability.

[ronan]

As someone who works in cybersecurity, I can say this was a brilliant video for bringing awareness to the massive concerns that nations, companies and, individuals face in this regard.

[Grandwigg]

I remember watching more information about this unfold while in IT class.
It's amazing how simple payload concept was. Security Now podcast was a stream of weekly updates for a while there.
This video is an excellent piece of coverage pulling it all together.

[Volition]

As an information security professional I’m ecstatic that cyber has entered the public consciousness, thank you for this video

[theNerdandtheNurse]

i’ve been a part of the cyber security industry for over a decade, it’s crazy to see how much it’s changed!

[bobqwerty]

Sucks this video was erroneously taken down for so long, hope this helps you guys keep doing good work!

[philsephton]

The best way I've found to fully understand Stuxnet was listening to the Darknet Diaries podcast. It goes into a lot more detail and shows how amazing the whole Stuxnet operation was