Case Study: Stuxnet (2010)

• Discovered June 2010; widely regarded as the first true cyber-physical weapon.
• Target: Siemens S7 PLCs driving uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz, Iran — not data theft, but physical sabotage.
• Quietly altered centrifuge rotor speeds to damage them, while replaying normal readings to operators.
• Enormous engineering effort: four Windows 0-days, worm spread, PLC payload, and a kernel rootkit — pointing to nation-state authors.