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Virus Infection Hits UK's Ministry of Defense, Including Warships
Retrovirus writes with a link to a Register story which says that the UK's "Ministry of Defence confirmed today that it has suffered virus infections which have shut down 'a small number' of MoD systems, most notably including admin networks aboard Royal Navy warships."
Somebody sunk their Battleship.
A year is roughly 29 days long now?
One more reason to use Linux: "Your country's security depends on it."
All your base are belong to "someone other than yourselves"
it wasn't a virus - it was a bug. a beatle, technically.
If defense systems weren't running on Windows, how would security personnel inconspicuously play solitaire?
I'm not currently allowed to do security-cleared work in UK, because I've just spent several years living in that hotbed of communism and espionage, New Zealand. Pity the MoD don't take such a rigorous approach to basic IT competence.
"It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
Of course they went to Windows: /var/log/messages"
Clicking Torpedo and then the enemy's battleship on a screen is much more efficient than typing
"attack --weapon torpedo --count 2 --coords 42394799879x3179478912"
and then waiting for the result in
"tail -f
mov ax,4c00h
int 21h
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081228
Exactly. I'm surprise those computers got infected with Windows in the first place. Usually it takes a CD to spread that virus.
At least this isn't January 2000, or those 29 days would have been a whole millenium.
Noting that a new season of Battlestar Galactica premieres today the guys that decided to run the Royal Navy on Windows will say that's not their fault: it's an attack of the Cylons! They have a far superior technology and no existing antivirus could defend the ships.
Ok, to be fair to the RN they're such an important target that an attacker would write a virus for any OS they run on, Linux, OSX, anything. However the network should have been protected. No USB drives, no connections with the outside, etc.
Yes I know, the Cylons have other ways to get into the networks (usually nice looking blondes - Cylons are so unimaginative...) and maybe that's what happened.
Wow, it really must be the 21st century. For millennia, when navies had problems with viruses, it was the sailors being a little too loose while on shore leave. Today, the ships are the ones getting infected due to open ports.
Only leap years. The rest are 28 days long.
Be relentless!
Admiral Adama never would have let that happen on his ship.
Too bad for the UK Defense department. It's just over the 7 day return policy for ordering goods over the internet, so they can't return Windows for a refund.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
As insider I can confirm system was fully 24/7 reliability certified, even shielded for smooth operation under nuclear attack. But then 1-year-free AVG licence ended.
839*929
Well, its blindingly obvious that the Royal Navy is worth zilch and run by nincompoops and incompetents since July 31st 1970, 6 bells of the forenoon watch. That was when the last rum ration was issued.
So the move to use Microsoft Windows and the subsequent(and consequent) series of disasters associated with such an abysmal piece of software does not strike on as "odd" with the same rear-admirals (which probably carry the word "rear-" in front of their title in order to find their posteriors) who had risen up their ranks without their daily rum ration.
It should have been clear in 1970 that the Navy which ruled the waves for 200 years wouldn't take something like having their rum taken away lightly; and that most probably their best sailors and officers would turn away in disgust of such a move, leaving only the incompetent and spineless to run and ruin the Navy. And in recent times, leaving a software company from the USA to ruin the Navy. Perhaps they realised the case was hopeless and retired to a half-pay life of binge-drinking; at least they could have their rum on shore, to drown their shame in.
Such a sad state.
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
:facepalm:
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
Well, when you are living in a window-less basement^^^ er, I mean, your command center, 29 days seems like a whole year :)
Maybe the Norton 30-day trial has expired.
No sig today...
Sailors are pissed
Aye... with the email down, we're downing the rum!
Be relentless!
Ever wish your computer was as secure as a battleship? Now it is.
Since the britons installed Windows, every sunday, late at night, pirates in the Irish sea have remoted their ships to a buccaneer's den on the Isle of Man.
Just look at the guy doing their IT. "Sometimes I just switch it off and on again, heh heh." Sounds like Windows to me.
Only if you use the wrong calendar :)
they can no longer clear shipping lanes, since they lost the minesweeper app
It is simply true that flaws are more common and less efficiently patched in Microsoft products than in any other.
Evidence ?
All the computers had MS Antivirus 2009 installed on them...and they still got infected with a virus!
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
As it was only the admin network effected, then not unless all that's required to start a world war is that someone spoofs an e-mail as such:
To: Rear Admiral Whoever
From: Vladmir Putin
Subject: lol u suck
im in ur macines stealing ur data
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for. Go out and get infested."
(Sorry, Admiral Hopper. Just can't help...)
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Ok. You didn't get it. Let me explayn...
woooosh!
Rethinking email
If all armies in the world switched to Windows we would have world peace.....
On behalf of Slashdot I accept that you were right and that we should have listened to you. Furthermore I bestow upon you the title of "Psyker".
How do you kill that which has no life?
Is that you Adama?
Fnord.