Cyberterrorism vs. cyberwarfare.
The only known instance of cyberterrorism in the world today is the Stuxnet worm which was
installed on computers in Iran to disable their nuclear reactors which can produce weapons grade
fissionable material to enable Iran to develop a nuclear warhead. The Stuxnet worm was discovered by
Kaspersky Labs which produced and marketed one of the most effective antivirus programs in the world.
Kaspersky Labs traced the origins of the Stuxnet worm to the CIA. The Stuxnet worm was
developed specifically to infect centrifuges in Iran’s nuclear plant to disrupt their nuclear development
program. It has been reported that Israeli security agencies were heavily involved in the mission to load
the worm.
A few years later, an NSA employee took various malware and tools home that the agency used
in their cyber operations and loaded it on his personal computer. The computer had Kaspersky Labs
antivirus loaded on it and alerted Kaspersky to the infection as antivirus programs are supposed to. It
was reported that Israeli agents which were employed by Kaspersky reported that Kaspersky had ties to
the Russian government. Shortly thereafter, US intelligence agencies released a report that Kaspersky
had connections with the Russian government and recommended that Kaspersky antivirus and all other
Kaspersky products be banned from Federal government computers.
Considering the timing and sequence of events was Kaspersky banned because they had ties to
the Russian government or were they banned because they exposed the Stuxnet worm and the CIA’s
attempt at disabling the Iranian nuclear program?
Some people would say that the CIA’s development and use of the Stuxnet worm was
cyberwarfare. Others would say it was cyberterrorism. Which was it? Support your answer with
research.