Osama Bin Laden

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Osama Bin Laden was one of the most hated, if not the most hated, men in the United States, because he was the head of an Iraqi terrorist group known as Al Qaeda. Citizens in the United States label countries that we do not understand or benefit from as terrorist nations. But, do citizens ever stop to think about how other nations perceive them? Maybe American citizens are terrorists in the eyes of other nations and they themselves are the victims. The United States government will try to deflect any actions that could diminish its reputation. They have waged wars in modern time in which other nations are the victims. One of these wars is cyber warfare. Cyber warfare is the action in which the specific person or group of people hack into a…show more content…
What makes it so powerful? Stuxnet has the capabilities to spread over an entire network of computers, that are running Microsoft Windows, just from one home computer. This virus’s main way of transportation is over networks, such as the internet or other interconnecting networks. Stuxnet does not even need a network. As long as a USB stick is inserted into a USB port, Stuxnet can install itself onto the inserted USB stick without alarming the user. If inserted into another computer, Stuxnet will go from that USB stick and reinstall until it finds its direct target. The virus is not like any virus a civilian might get by downloading an illegal song. Stuxnet has a digitally encrypted certificate that is backed by a well known company, so that if the virus itself has been flagged by an anti-virus software, Stuxnet will “brandish” (The Real Story of Stuxnet) this certificate and bypass this anti-virus software. Once the software has been installed, Stuxnet will search for the intended target that it has been programed to exterminate-in this case, the Iranian centrifuges. Once found, Stuxnet will attempt to download a new version of itself by connecting to the internet by any means necessary. The next step in Stuxnet’s mission is to destroy the Iranian centrifuges without detection by using a cloak. Stuxnet’s best cloak is a Zero-Day exploit. A Zero-Day exploit is a type of bypass system that a virus…show more content…
Centrifuges started to fail in no particular pattern and computers crashed with no warning. On June 29, the company that Stuxnet targeted was an engineering firm by the name of Behpajooh. Behpajooh was the main site for Iran’s uranium enrichment program, so it is easy to see why this was Stuxnet’s and Flame’s next target. Two weeks after Stuxnet and Flame hit, employees noticed an error with their machines and reported to Behrooz, who was an alias. Behrooz was intrigued by all the complaints he had received and started some of his own research. First he experimented with just a blank personal computer (PC) and inserted a CD into the disc drive, but obviously did not find the problem. After failing with the CD, he moved on to another form that was commonly used by his company; a USB stick. The virus quickly copied and Behrooz found that the PC had the same problems as the machines did. He quickly ordered the company to do a malware search but the viruses had surpassed everything they had. While all this had been going on, Stuxnet had already claimed 328 centrifuges in about a month (An Unprecedented Look At Stuxnet, The World’s First Digital Weapon). In about half a year Stuxnet’s total confirmed centrifuge kill count was about 984 centrifuges (An Unprecedented Look At Stuxnet, The World’s First Digital
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