Journalist to discuss Iran computer worm

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Award-winning journalist Kim Zetter will speak on Sept. 23 at the University of Rhode Island about the discovery of a computer worm that infiltrated Iran’s nuclear program.

Zetter, known for her investigative work on the computer worm, also is a senior staff reporter at Wired where she focuses on cybercrime, privacy and security.

The free, public lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road, on the Kingston campus; it is part of URI’s 2014 Honors Colloquium, “Cybersecurity & Privacy.”

The presenting sponsor for the entire colloquium is Cox Business.

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Zetter’s talk, titled, “Stuxnet and The World’s First Digital Weapon,” will address the discovery of the Stuxnet worm that helped slow Iran’s nuclear program in 2010. She will discuss how Stuxnet was designed, then planted in computers in Iran, causing computers to crash. She will also discuss the vulnerability of the United States and other countries to a copycat attack.

Her new book, “Countdown to Zero Day,” provides extensive details on the first known instance of cyber warfare.

Zetter’s book title comes from the worm’s “zero day” capability to spread, but appear as if it was generic malware. It was later discovered that the goal of the worm was to undermine equipment in Iran’s nuclear program. It was the first landmark cyberweapon discovered and was the first case of digital code being used for physical destruction.

“Zero day” is a term applied to a previously undiscovered computer virus or worm, which handcuffs programmers by giving them no time to respond.

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