One of the first things that struck him about the attack was that it unfolded in six stages that repeated over weeks and months. Once the attack was done, it recycled itself and began again. This meant that rather than launching a single blow that caused catastrophic failure, as the researchers originally believed Stuxnet was designed to do, the attackers were going for subtle sabotage that extended over time. This, combined with the man-in-the-middle attack that concealed the sabotage from operators as it occurred, would have made it hard for anyone to detect and pinpoint the source of
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