The article noted that "this simulated attack demonstrated what U.S. officials and industry experts say is a little-understood national and economic security threat: the ability of malicious computer code to cripple critical systems that millions of people rely on for food, fuel, safe water and more." Machines running the nation’s plants and other crucial systems are increasingly interconnected; some officials fear this interconnectedness could lead to a digital attack that causes death and destroys critical machines.
Meanwhile, the skills of nations and hackers are growing. Stuxnet, a sophisticated computer virus that in 2009 had infected controllers in a uranium enrichment plant in Iran, marked the first targeted attack against an industrial control system. It was also the first documented use of a military-grade weapon built entirely from code. Stuxnet has been described as both a "game-changer" and "a digital warhead."
The source article can be found here.
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