WarSclerotic

Little Boy and Fat Man

Have Little Boy and Fat Man, the nuclear devices dropped on Japan to end World War II in Asia and the Pacific, been replaced by Stuxnet? The question is raised in a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Analysts who have viewed the Stuxnet virus, which sabotaged the Iranian nuclear centrifuges, call its use a watershed moment in cyber warfare, because it was the first instance of a specially designed cyber weapon used to attack the industrial infrastructure of a sovereign nation.

The success of the attack has demonstrated that cyber attacks can be not only successful but devastating.

Ralph Langner, an independent cyber security expert based in Germany, and his team of experts, analyzed the code contained in the Stuxnet virus and were surprised by what they found.

Before Stuxnet, viruses were created by hackers and unleashed onto the Internet without concern for the damage they caused.

But Stuxnet was a revolutionary design that only attacked specific electronic components configured in a particular way. In this instance, the target was centrifuges designed for a nuclear plant.

Langner’s analysis showed the virus to be of a highly advanced design.

According to Langner, “code analysis makes it clear that Stuxnet is not about sending a message or proving a concept, it is about destroying its targets with utmost determination in military style.”

In a recent article, David Gerwitz, the cyber terrorism adviser for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, argues that the Stuxnet virus has ushered in an era in warfare and will spark a virtual arms race similar to how Hiroshima sparked the nuclear arms race.

Gerwitz calls the Stuxnet virus the “Little Boy and Fat Man of the digital age,” in reference to the two atomic weapons used by the United States against Japan in World War II.

Little Boy was only 28 inches by 10 feet long, but it weighed in at 8,900 pounds, including its enriched uranium core. It delivered an estimated 16 kilotons of explosive power. Fat Man, 60 inches by 128 inches, was 10,300 pounds, including its plutonium center, and delivered 21 Kt of explosives.

Both were costly and difficult to develop. But computer viruses can be created by nearly any group, individual or state.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.