Cyberwar Is Mostly Bunk

But expect more cyber sabotage, espionage, and subversion

The most famous case of weaponized code causing physical damage is the Stuxnet worm, which disrupted Iran's nuclear enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. Evidently, the U.S. and Israel developed and targeted this highly sophisticated software, which reportedly delayed Iran's nuclear program by as much as two years. Rid argues that Stuxnet is not an example of warfare, but of sabotage. "Cyber attacks which are designed to sabotage a system may be violent, or the vast majority of the cases, non-violent,” argues Rid. Sabotage is aimed chiefly at things, not people. In addition, most saboteurs do not want to be identified.
 The Flame attack, discovered in 2012, was aimed at Iran's oil industry. That “bug on steroids” had the remarkable capabilities; it could turn on an infected computer's microphone, take screen shots, log keystrokes, and overhear Skype conversations, as well as exfiltrate documents. Given its intricacy, Kaspersky Lab, the Russian computer security firm, suspects that Flame was devised by the same groups that created Stuxnet. ***Read article at Reason.com***