Did The Stuxnet Worm Kill India’s INSAT-4B Satellite?

[TATA]

Did The Stuxnet Worm Kill India’s INSAT-4B Satellite?

On July 7, 2010, a power glitch in the solar panels of India’s INSAT-4B satellite resulted in 12 of its 24 transponders shutting down. As a result, an estimated 70% of India’s Direct-To-Home (DTH) companies’ customers were without service. India’s DTH operators include Sun TV and state-run Doordarshan and data services of Tata VSNL.

INSAT-4B was put into orbit in March, 2007 by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which conducts research and develops space technology for the government of India. It is also the agency which controls and monitors India’s satellites and space vehicles while they are operational.

Once it became apparent that INSAT-4B was effectively dead, SunDirect ordered its servicemen to redirect customer satellite dishes to point to ASIASAT-5, a Chinese satellite owned and operated by Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co., Ltd (AsiaSat). AsiaSat’s two primary shareholders are General Electric and China International Trust and Investment Co. (CITIC), a state-owned company. China and India are competing with each other to see who will be the first to land another astronaut on the Moon. China has announced a date of 2025 while India is claiming 2020.

What does this have to do with the Stuxnet worm that’s infected thousands of systems, mostly in India and Iran? India’s Space Research Organization is a Siemens customer. According to the resumes of two former engineers who worked at the ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, the Siemens software in use is Siemens S7-400 PLC and SIMATIC WinCC, both of which will activate the Stuxnet worm.

I uncovered this information as part of my background research for a paper that I’m presenting at the Black Hat Abu Dhabi conference in November. My objective for that presentation will be to provide an analytic model for determining attribution in cases like Stuxnet. My objective for this post is simply to show that there are more and better theories to explain Stuxnet’s motivation than just Israel and Iran, as others have posited. My personal research won’t be available until after Black Hat Abu Dhabi, however I hope others will pick up this thread, give it a good yank, and see what unravels before then.

Did The Stuxnet Worm Kill India’s INSAT-4B Satellite? - The Firewall - the world of security - Forbes

 

[CardSharp]

Interesting. They say the sophistication of the code points to governmental involvement, but I thought it was targeted at Iran and it's power generation.

 

[blaster]

stuxnet is not particularly made for iran,it is a worm which attacks the computers which controls powerplants...
but by the way,Isro removed the glitch successfully and none of the DtH recevers were turned towards chineese sats ,coz i am using Sun direct D2h service,and no service men came and changed the dish position..

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Am no electronic or cyber-expert but the information (so far) available in the public domain seems to indicate that this Stuxnet worm was targeted towards some specific hardware/software. Did the INSAT-4B satellite come within that ambit? Probably not.

 

[Kinetic]

Cyber warfare is taking shape. By 2025 it will be more deadlier than biological or chemical weapons. Who ever makes your hardware but make sure the software is full proof. I think GoI learned that well.

 

[InPhilTraitor]

coming from a black-hat conference speaker, I have to say, there seems to be a lot of credibility. Obviously, how do you fix the problem in case of a satellite. I would like some one to illuminate on this, since the regular fixes are already released.

 

[rsingh]

I would not like to point any fingers but the way our neighbor is behaving anything is possible.

Apple told to show Arunachal as part of China
The Hindu : International : Apple told to show Arunachal as part of China

Every one of those users who logged on to Apple's latest new product would have been led to think the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh was a part of China, if they went by the phone's maps.

Apple has been told to show the entire state within China's borders, according to local media reports here on Wednesday.

A map from the latest iPhone 4, which launched here on Saturday amid much media attention, shows the entire region under Chinese territory.

 

[Markus]

Complete nonsense.

The blog writer is just stating the above crap as part of the research he claims to have done. Obvious he seems to be at fault.

Many articles available on Stuxnet clearly claim that even if control systems affected by Stuxnet does not mean that Stuxnet will execute its malicious code and blow up just any system.

Instead, in Bushehr's case, heavy insider involment was sighted and it seems that Stuxnet will be activated only on pre-identified hardware and not just any Siemens control system.

Nobody is playing a "blind game" here.

 

[xuxu1457]

Another funny story~~

 

[CardSharp]

I would not like to point any fingers but the way our neighbor is behaving anything is possible.

Apple told to show Arunachal as part of China
The Hindu : International : Apple told to show Arunachal as part of China

Victimhood it's the new black

 

[Vassnti]

I thought Stuxnet was spread by usb drives so it seemed pretty impossible for some one to be spreading it to an indian sattelite, after all how do you get a usb drive to a sattelite, then i found this

 

[Hussein]

China hitting India via Net worm? - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The deadly Stuxnet internet worm, which was thought to be targeting Iran's nuclear programme, might actually have been aimed at India by none other than China.

I was reading your post. As an Iranian i am curious about this .

But does it really made damage? it seems not in Iran .
It is more communication than damage
Israel? China? maybe tomorrow Russia or USA? lol who'll know?

 

[prototype]

I have heard that stuxnet had also affected Chinese system's,day by day this seems to b more like a story than reality,now as far as i know INSAT-4B is not a system controlled by Siemens

 

[no_name]

I thought Stuxnet was spread by usb drives so it seemed pretty impossible for some one to be spreading it to an indian sattelite, after all how do you get a usb drive to a sattelite, then i found this

Yeah lol and satellite came with USB ports on the outside.

 

[RPK]

Cyber threat: Isro rules out Stuxnet attack on Insat-4 B - The Economic Times


MUMBAI: Isro has ruled out possibility of the deadly Stuxnet internet worm attacking Insat-4 B satellite on July 7, resulting in 12 of its 24 transponders shutting down.

Speaking to TOI from Bangalore on Monday, Isro officials, requesting anonymity, said that the worm only strikes a satellite’s programme logic controller (PLC).

“We can confirm that Insat-4 B doesn’t have a PLC. So the chances of the Stuxnet worm attacking it appear remote. In PLC’s place, Insat-4 B had its own indigenously-designed software which controlled the logic of the spacecraft,’’ said a source.

PLC’s main function is to control the entire “logic of the spacecraft’’. Other space experts described PLC as a digital computer used for automation of electro-mechanical processes.

Sources, however, said Isro is awaiting Jeffrey Carr’s presentation at Abu Dhabi next to know the full details of the Stuxnet internet worm. Carr in a blog published in Forbes recently suggested that the resumes of two former engineers at Isro’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendra Giri in Tamil Nadu said that the Siemens S7-400 PLC was used in Insat-4 B, which can activate the Stuxnet worm.

An Isro announcement on July 9 said that “due to a power supply anomaly in one of its (Insat-4 B) two solar panels, there is a partial non-availability on India’s Insat-4 B communication satellite’’. It said that the satellite has been in operation since March 2007 and the power supply glitch had led to the switching off of 50% of the transponder capacity.

The worm infects only computers equipped with certain Siemens software systems. Isro, however, reiterated that the Siemens software wasn’t used in Insat-4 B. The Stuxnet worm was first discovered in June, a month before Insat-4 B was crippled by power failure.

Carr’s blog says, “China and India are competing with each other to see who will be the first to land another astronaut on the Moon.’’