Cyberwarfare and the Security Workforce

Stuxnet, discovered by security researchers in 2010, is widely regarded as the first publicly documented cyberweapon designed to cause physical damage rather than merely steal or corrupt data. The malware specifically targeted the industrial control systems, made by Siemens, that operated centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility, subtly altering their rotational speed while feeding false "normal operation" readings back to human operators, causing the equipment to damage itself over time without triggering alarms. Although never officially acknowledged by any government, Stuxnet has been widely attributed by journalists and researchers to a joint operation, sometimes referred to as "Olympic Games," between the United States and Israel, and it is generally seen as the moment cyberwarfare moved from theory into demonstrated practice.