Question #1:
The purpose for a hacker to conceal their tracks in the hacking process is to avoid discovery of their actions by the officials such as the FBI. I believe the repercussions for a hacker who doesn’t adequately covers their tracks, eventually resulting in discovery by the government officials includes: jail time, felony records, and heavy fines. I also believe that if a hacker is prosecuted for hacking activities, they will have a criminal record which will follow them throughout their life which could prevent them from obtaining other opportunities such as certain jobs.
Question #2:
The Stuxnet internet worm was a virus created to infect Windows computers. The hackers who created the worm are relatively unknown, although there is speculation the United States and Israeli governments were involved in the creation of the virus (Schneier, 2010). The process the hackers used to conceal their actions when creating and implementing this worm were very simple: they created the virus to spread mostly through USB sticks (Schneier, 2010). This process of spreading the virus was very clever because it allows for computers not connected to the internet to also get infected with the virus such as protected machines. In addition to spreading the virus in this manner, once inside the network the virus spreads to other machines on the network and looks for the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) (Schneier, 2010). The PLC’s are the main target for the virus.
I think the hackers were so successful in concealing their actions because of the way they designed the virus to only attack computers with PLC systems. By attacking on the computers with a specific type of system the hackers disguised their intentions on the other machines which were infected. The virus spread to many computers but only attacked machines with the PLC system which reduced the overall presence of the virus on the infected machines.
References
Schneier, B. (2010, October). The Story Behind The Stuxnet Virus. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/06/iran-nuclear-computer-technology-security-stuxnet-worm.html
