Federal News Radio 1500 AM: Federal experts on the trail of the Stuxnet virus

The Homeland Security Department has been tracking one of the most dangerous computer malware attacks since it emerged in July.

And so far, Stuxnet hasn't had any malicious effect on industrial systems and networks in the United States, but DHS knows the potential harm to industrial systems it could cause and that makes it worth watching and tracking very, very closely.

Sean McGurk, director of the Homeland Security Department's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) in a briefing with reporters Friday, waved a USB thumb drive hanging from a lanyard on his neck, declaring, "This is actually Stuxnet."

Experts believe Stuxnet is being spread from computer to computer using widely available portable memory devices, and McGurk said he has a copy of the virus on his thumb drive for testing and monitoring purposes.

"Stuxnet is going in and manipulating devices in native code, and by that I mean it actually lets you take control of systems, but more importantly, from an intellectual property standpoint, what Stuxnet enables you to do is let you read at the manufacturing level how things are made," he said.

McGurk likened the abilities of the Stuxnet virus to being able to determine how CocaCola is made, not by reading the formula for mixing the product, but by reading the operating system of the machine that mixes together the ingredients.

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Federal News Radio 1500 AM: Federal experts on the trail of the Stuxnet virus