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PCs Pilfered, Paralyzing Populace

Posted by michael on from the doh! dept.

Heywood Yabuzof writes "According to this Wired story, thieves in Chile caused traffic to grind to a halt when they decided to steal the computers (15 PCs and 2 servers) that control the traffic lights in Santiago. Funny how everyone worries so much about preventing "evil hackers" from breaking in to systems remotely and causing chaos, and then some burglars just go ahead and steal the critical computers to produce the same (unintended?) results."

5 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Physical Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They deactivated the alarm system and security cameras, Generally ir is not the sysadmins job to do more than request extra security from whoever physical security is contracted out to.

  2. I hope they had a good backup strategy by cygnusx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The real test for the admins at the end of the day will be -- how fast can they bring the systems back online?

    Honestly, how different is this (apart from being more spectacular) from a power spike frying your servers (maybe because of a UPS problem)?

  3. backups backups by doubtless · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Any admins know that backup is one of the top priorities, and we all know the importance of off-site backups.

    In this case, they should have at least 2 different sites that runs the traffic light system. Much like hospitals having at least a backup power supply, critical services like this are never to be interrupted.

    Imagine if this happens to the air traffic systems, then I'm sure it wouldn't even be funny.

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    geek page at KY speaks
  4. Security through obscurity by ndogg · · Score: 1, Insightful
    "We thought we had deployed all normal security measures," Tambolini said. "You never know if you've covered all security holes until this kind of thing happens." He also pleaded to the almost 1 million befuddled drivers for some patience and understanding.

    This just shows the weakness of security through obscurity. Security ends up becoming reactive rather than proactive, so the purpose ends up defeating itself, since you cannot fix holes until something is stolen through the exploitation of those holes.
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    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
  5. Re:It's a good thing... by BlueUnderwear · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I find it hard to believe that most city streets operate at anything even approaching 100% capacity. It's probably more like 60-70%.

    Considering the average over the whole day, and over all roads and streets in the network, it's probably even much lower than that. What's relevant here is peak usage: how overloaded are the main arteries at rush hour?

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    Say no to software patents.