Computer Virus Fells Russian Stock Exchange

azav wrote to mention the New Scientist story detailing the computer virus that brought down the Russian Stock Exchange. From the article: "As the world waited for one computer virus to strike on Friday, another wriggled its way into the Russian stock exchange and knocked it offline. Computer experts had warned that 3 February could bring gloom for many as a computer virus called Nyxem was scheduled to start deleting files on machines it had infected."

Comments

stupid...

[advocate_one]

we have a testing machine... connected to the internet of all things... AND connected to the same network the production system is running on... and evidently it's running on ms-windows...

But Russia has good hackers...

[caluml]

This is ironic, as Russia has arguably some of the best computer security experts in the world. Those that know how to exploit the holes can also advise how to secure against threats. I wonder if it's due to talented Russians leaving the country to work abroad?

Re:You let M$ near your cash?

[benjamindees]

the CIA, backed by President Ronald Reagan, aimed to bring down the Russian economy with dodgy software.

too.. many.. jokes...

Groupthink (was: the obvious response?)

[Gary W. Longsine]

running windows as anything mission critical is stupid, it's a desktop system at heart, and an unstable one at that. running the bloody stock exchange on it is suicidal.

Although that might be a reasonable and rational statement on the surface, the fact is that Windows systems are now at the heart of critical systems everywhere. Although I'm surprised to see them playing such a critical roll in a stock exchange, I'm only a little tiny bit surprised, and mostly ashamed of my own instinctive reaction.

When these decisions are being made, you may feel as though you're stuck in a slow-motion sequence in a horror film, leaping to save someone, someone very beautiful that you could care about deeply if only you knew them a little better, someone who doesn't deserve to be eaten alive by a vicious monster, or maybe they do, but you just don't know it, anyway you don't know it and you didn't thnk of that until later, much later, after years of therapy in fact, all the while, leaping in futile slow motion to save a fatefully doomed monster victim, certain of their inevitable doom, crying "Nooooooo!" at the top of your lungs to no avail, due to the slow-motion and your voice having been run through an under-water pitch-reducing distortion filter. Yet another heroine devoured by the monster, just out of arms reach... You think to yourself, "If only... If only... If only I hadn't been stuck on slow motion..." when suddenly realize you're not alone, and you're thinking out loud, reliving the nightmare.

At this point a friend interrupts your navel gazing to say, "The monster would have eaten you too. Don't feel so guilty." whereas the cliche movie therapist would say, "How does that make you feel?" If you hear the former response, you're probably in meatspace, the latter, and you're still either dreaming or you really are a character in a horror film, and the monster is about to come crashing up through the floor or in through the window and eat your therapist.

Windows systems can be found:

• running U.S. Navy warships
• running medical imaging, monitoring, and other life-critical devices
• running train control systems
• running nuclear power plants
• running ATM networks and other aspects of the banking system

Although it might be true that no rational and informed person would set up such critical systems on a system with the stability and security track record of Windows, remember that such decisions are typically made by a bureaucracy, not by rational and informed individuals. The field of psychology has studied this phenomenon and call it "groupthink".

Groupthink
Wikipedia on Groupthink
A First Look at Communication Theory (Ch. 18, 3rd Edition)

Re:Groupthink (was: the obvious response?)

[SgtChaireBourne]

Regarding the US Navy warships,

1. Newport News Shipbuilding is awarded a contract for the first of the new "Ronald Reagan" class of aircraft carriers.

2. Bill Gates gets out his check book and instantly becomes the second largest stockholder (owner) in Newport News Shipbuilding.

3. Newport News Shipbuilding selects Microsoft to develop the warfare systems. Microsoft, a company with no experience in warfare systems, and a reputation for unstable, insecure software, will base the Ronald Reagan's warfare systems on an unproven operating system with 63,000 known bugs . . err, oops, I meant "points of focus" - Windows 2000.

4. Press releases were sent out assuring us Bill Gates' huge investment had nothing to do with the decision. So see there, Doreen - what we did last month had nothing to do with your pregnancy - it's right here in my press release.

5. Once Newport News is in too deep to bail out, Bill Gates will be free to sell his stock holdings and use the money to make sure some other company makes the "right" decision.

-- http://www.aaxnet.com/news/M000714.html

group think is definitely a factor, but there is also Chairman Gates' investments to think of .

Along the same lines, back before The Register got all soft on Gates, the posted his major purchase. Actually it was made by his investment firm, such firms being almost textbook examples of group think, it was the deciding piece in realizing the US would soon enter protracted war. Such stocks are only 'undervalued' if prolonged war is planned. It's not like a shipyard can just squeeze out a carrier or two per quarter.