Ralph Langner recently spoke at TED about his team’s findings on Stuxnet; it’s a clear (and somewhat scary) insight into the wars of the future. Instead of sending fighters and bombers to take out Iran’s nuclear program, as was done in 1981 to eliminate Iraq’s program, a carefully crafted virus slowly and methodologically damaged or destroyed vital equipment.

How long until this is used as a standard part of ‘softening’ a target by taking out key infrastructure (flight systems, power plants, telephone & internet, etc.) before the bombs start to fly?

For those of us that have a professional interest in security, understanding the threats both present and future is simply a necessity.

This is a must watch.

Ralph Langner: Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon

Update: If you want to dig into some technical detail, Mark Russinovich has a good write-up on it.