“The virus itself doesn’t need to report back - the news media seems to be doing just fine.”
Really?
So has the virus infected the Abadan refinery in Iran? And does the media report on the real-time the presser of the cracker unit in the refinery, right now? Will Fox news tells the Israelis when to flip the switch and cause it to implode on itself?
In seriousness, think about how stupid your post is.
This is a weapon that lets someone turn on and off machinery. The goal is to turn it on and off at various critical times so as to best cause it to damage itself -— or, better yet, in the case of the nuke plant, melt down and make a crater.
To get real time info like that, you need ability to “report back.”
The virus calls contacts servers for updates. It’s easy to tell its progress then.
Dude, I think Stuxnet has corrupted your politeness chip.
Otherwise you make a good point. Infected SCADA in an industrial setting is well capable of 'reporting' on itself. It can literally phone you up, though that's trackable. It can certainly leave subtler clues visible to satellites, UAVs or listening posts about what it has infected.
And that's all I'll say about that.