STUXNET TROJAN

      The security chief at the North American Electric Reliability Corp.
(NERC) is calling for better designed and more hardened systems in
the wake of the Stuxnet malware threat.

      The Stuxnet Trojan quickly gained the attention of the security

industry because it was one of the first pieces of malware to use
multiple previously unknown vulnerabilities. Stuxnet initially relied
on four zero-day vulnerabilities to gain access to devices that could
potentially connect to critical control systems, allowing Stuxnet to
spread to other machines. It was also the first piece of malware that
could inject itself into programmable logic controllers, the system
that controls temperature, pressure and other processes vital to
keeping industrial facilities running smoothly.