| Sumario: | The Stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear program is an outlier in the history of cyber conflict. While espionage and subversion are prevalent, serious cyber-physical damage remains rare. Stuxnet has thus had an outsized influence on debates about cyber warfare, for visionaries and skeptics alike. This seminal case deserves a second look in light of more recent evidence and the evolving literature on cybersecurity. Rather than a precious incident of cyber warfare, Stuxnet can be better understood as a tool of covert diplomacy. Indeed, Stuxnet illustrates key features of secret statecraft such as indefinite duration, institutional subversion, clandestine organization, and escalation management.
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