<story><title>Cyber Attack on Iran&apos;s Nuclear Facility</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56708778</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lovedswain</author><text>&amp;gt; _very_ competent cyber-actor&lt;p&gt;Please elaborate on this. As someone with direct exposure to this area and in this geography, my experience could not be described this way at all.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s not forget Iran&amp;#x27;s first &amp;quot;military satellite&amp;quot; was launched with an over the counter unencrypted amateur cubesat transponder manufactured by a Californian company</text></item><item><author>ajcp</author><text>The real take-away from this is that you have a _very_ competent cyber-actor (Iran) getting pancaked &lt;i&gt;at will&lt;/i&gt; by an _extremely_ competent cyber-actor (Israel) in what one would presume to be one of it&amp;#x27;s most, _if not most_, cybersecure locations (Natanz).&lt;p&gt;Nation-states using cyber capabilities in this way, and the non-response it evokes, is reminiscent of how pre-WWI nation-states would conduct policy and international affairs with their armies.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s something I wish the general public were more cognizant of. We need to openly talk about this type of power and conflict. Otherwise we&amp;#x27;re going to have another WWI-type moment, where it takes millions of people dying before we realize that the state of the game has changed because of new technologies.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ajcp</author><text>Given when we&amp;#x27;re talking about nations states as cyber-actors we&amp;#x27;re working with a pool of ~190. Compared to 90% of the other nation-states out there Iran is a _very_ competent cyber-actor. Enough so that it may even export that capability. This still means there are ~20 that are more competent, if not _extremely_ so.&lt;p&gt;Given your exposure in this geography can you name any of it&amp;#x27;s neighbors who have greater or even equal competency that aren&amp;#x27;t Israel or don&amp;#x27;t use citizens from an _extremely_ competent nation-state? They certainly had their way with Aramco, so not Saudi Arabia. Egypt? Jordan? Syria? Iraq? Perhaps Lebanon? And this just their neighbors. What about compared to Portugal or Spain? South Africa? Nigeria? Argentina or Mexico?</text></comment>
<story><title>Cyber Attack on Iran&apos;s Nuclear Facility</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56708778</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lovedswain</author><text>&amp;gt; _very_ competent cyber-actor&lt;p&gt;Please elaborate on this. As someone with direct exposure to this area and in this geography, my experience could not be described this way at all.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s not forget Iran&amp;#x27;s first &amp;quot;military satellite&amp;quot; was launched with an over the counter unencrypted amateur cubesat transponder manufactured by a Californian company</text></item><item><author>ajcp</author><text>The real take-away from this is that you have a _very_ competent cyber-actor (Iran) getting pancaked &lt;i&gt;at will&lt;/i&gt; by an _extremely_ competent cyber-actor (Israel) in what one would presume to be one of it&amp;#x27;s most, _if not most_, cybersecure locations (Natanz).&lt;p&gt;Nation-states using cyber capabilities in this way, and the non-response it evokes, is reminiscent of how pre-WWI nation-states would conduct policy and international affairs with their armies.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s something I wish the general public were more cognizant of. We need to openly talk about this type of power and conflict. Otherwise we&amp;#x27;re going to have another WWI-type moment, where it takes millions of people dying before we realize that the state of the game has changed because of new technologies.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kodah</author><text>In my mind, most countries can&amp;#x27;t figure out how to plan or coordinate a cyber-attack. With a limited pool of nations to pick from, even being able to coordinate an attack makes you relatively &amp;quot;very competent&amp;quot; (among your peers), however, that would also be a matter of perspective. It&amp;#x27;s equally valid to determine a criteria of competency and rank&amp;#x2F;describe countries based on those thresholds.</text></comment>