Stuxnet is a computer worm that was responsible for damaging Iranian nucleur institutions. The Stuxnet malware would infiltrate a computer through the USB drive, but would only execute its main operation after checking to see if the system was connected to the critical infrastructure it was designed to target — the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) of the nuclear centrifuges.

Stuxnet made use of at least 4 zero-day vulnerabilities on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

 

Last updated: 6 September 2017