Stuxnet is less of an espionage tool than a way of sabotaging targeted infrastructure, but it does so in a hard-to-detect manner that exploits commercial software utilized throughout the world.
IBM's Web focus also exploits the timely appeal that software-as-a-service has to IT managers' wallets in the midst of the current economic downturn, says IDC Research Analyst Frank Genz.
Vupen is just one of a number of companies that have created controversy in the security community by profiting from zero-day exploits rather than working with software firms to fix the hackable vulnerabilities they use.