'Cybernition' Stuxnet virus may target industrial sabotage on US

Stuxnet, the world's first ever worm-virus that is strong and clever enough to alter the functioning of machinery, particularly at nuclear uranium enrichment plants, could possibly be manipulated to cause catastrophic damage to any industrialized nation.

Discovered in July, 2010, Stuxnet had apparently already spread to tens of thousands of computers around the world. Symantec supervisor of security response operations for North America, Liam O'Murchu, was among the first of the researchers to discover the worm. "It's the first time we've ever seen a threat that can change how machienery works," O'Murchu was quoted, "So it's very innovative and it's a real change in the threat landscape from that point of view." The "point of view" which O'Murchu is referring to is that because the virus constantly duplicates itself, nobody knows who may have obtained it and already begin altering it as a more severe weapon. ABC News marked Stuxnet one of "The Top Four Cyber Threats for 2011" early in January. Iranian Nuclear Plants were suspected to have been the intended target for the Stuxnet virus, whether the attack was intended to be covert and additional details are unknown, but ABC News International reported the attack late in 2010.