In the modern era that we live in almost everything is connected to the internet. There are apps that control lights, the television, even house locks. Yet, the drive for convenience is diminishing a more important factor: security. As more and more devices are being connected to the internet like cars, power generators, even air traffic controllers, the higher the probability that they can be hacked and cause physical damage.

Most people don’t think that they can be hurt by a computer, but in reality, they can, and the likeliness of it rises every day. The NSA (National Security Agency) is so secretive that some people use the abbreviation as No Such Agency. Yet, some of their secrets are being revealed. The first cyber weapon that finally woke up the world was Stuxnet.

Stuxnet is a computer worm that specifically targets PLC’s. A PLC is a programmable logic controller, a small computer that is used to control millions of things from elevators to power generators, to Iran’s nuclear program, from assembly lines to amusement park rides, PLC’s control them all. The attacks first happened in Iran, a place with very little large industrial facilities.  The virus was meant to be transmitted by USB flash drive, but cyber experts were dumbfounded, at first that is. Stuxnet was no ordinary virus, it was much more complicated than anything any computer expert was use too. The experts knew this couldn’t be someone from a basement. It was a group effort of cyber experts that came together to create this malicious program. No one would spend that amount of time writing this code unless they wanted to attack something large, such as the nuclear program.

That narrowed down the suspects to nation states. Of course, the first nation state to come to mind was the U.S. The facts fit perfectly. The NSA would use Stuxnet to infect the Iran Nuclear lab, which had no internet connection as a security measure, which would make sense why the virus was made to be transmitted via USB flash drive. The virus would then be inserted into the facility by a spy or unwitty worker. The virus would lay in wait for weeks, and then jump in causing the nuclear generators to shake and slow down and then stop all together (not a pretty sight). Malicious software is everywhere.

In one scenario from Nova: Cyber War Threat, two hackers set up a internet connection in a public area - a coffee shop. This internet is an evil twin virus, it mimics the public areas internet, but it installs malicious software into the laptop of the user. The virus  then tricks the laptop into giving the it’s location to the hacker every time the laptop is open. The hackers then track down where the owner lives, and they disarm his electronic locks, and stroll right in. Of course, this was only a scenario and they were all actors but it could happen. Cyber War is very real.

The possibilities are endless in what can be done with Cyber War. Viruses can be sent into our power lines and wipe out the whole United States’ electricity, a blackout far worse than that of New York in 1965 that left almost a million people in the dark. Power generators can be dealt damage that would last 6-9 months in under a minute. A demonstration on Nova: Cyber War Threat shows a cyber expert with a balloon. He runs a program that pumps air into the balloon for three seconds. He then demonstrates what happens when malicious software infects his program. The balloon continues to expand, until exploding. Imagine if that was a pipe line or a gas line.

Lives can be lost using Cyber War. Plus, it’s almost certain that a Cyber War will turn into commercial war.
There is a way to avoid this, if the NSA realizes what is more important: A strong offense or a strong defense. The answer is obvious, a strong defense. To protect America and the technologies of it, security measures need to be taken. Old power generators used to be manual but now they can be hacked electronically. If more security measures are taken, perhaps the Cyber War threat will stay just that, a threat, but the chance of war will always still be there.