Hacking Nuclear Command and Control

The Walking Dude writes "The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) has released an unclassified report exploring the possibility of cyber terrorists launching nuclear weapons. Ominous exploits include unreliable early warning sensors, unsecure nuclear weapons storage, transportation blunders, breaches in the chain of command, and the use of Windows on nuclear submarines. A traditional large-scale terrorist attack, such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks, could be combined with computer network operations in an attempt to start a nuclear war. Amidst the confusion of the traditional attack, communications could be disrupted, false declarations of war could be issued on both sides, and early warning sensors could be spoofed. Adding to this is the short time frame in which a retaliatory nuclear response must be decided upon, in some cases as little as 15 minutes. The amount of firepower that could be unleashed in these 15 minutes would be equivalent to approximately 100,000 Hiroshima bombs."

Comments

IRL

[hellfish006]

"...and the use of Windows on nuclear submarines" Talk about your Blue Screen of Death

Re:IRL

[RDW]

'Windows is used on British Nuclear submarines - but not as part of the command and control system and certainly not the nuclear missile systems. Nuclear submarines have crews, and require stores control and admin systems for their food and other needs. These are standard Windows systems, but have nothing to do with the military side of the system.'

In any case, the Royal Navy has a full-tested emergency procedure for dealing with all computer-related malfunctions aboard nuclear submarines, helpfully illustrated in this official video (about 18 seconds in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDHPCr5m4ko

Break out the random dialer...

[DaRanged]

Shall we play a game?

Re:Break out the random dialer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War.

Windows on submarines?

[PvtVoid]

Windows on a submarine sound like a pretty bad idea to me...

Re:Windows on submarines?

[Cur8or]

Maybe, but "The hunt for Redhat October" would be a bitching movie.

Re:Windows on submarines?

[nicc777]

Especially if you open one...

Re:Windows on submarines?

[Clandestine_Blaze]

Uwe Boll, is that you? :-)

Re:Windows on submarines?

[sabt-pestnu]

So you could get in trouble if the raid cheers when you defeat Yogg-Saron?

Good thing that you can't actually connect to the WoW servers from underwater, then!

Adobe is to blame

[coulbc]

Watching a flash presentation might just launch a nuke.

Dont worry...

[nicc777]

When it happens, most of us wont even know it :-)

The survivors amongst us might know after they can't access /. for 12 consecutive hours.

Re:Nothing to see here, move along!

[Sun.Jedi]

We tried to nail Jane Fonda.

Re:People in the know

[maxwell demon]

The unabomber wasn't rational but fortunately he was a mathematician

An irrational matematician may sound like an oxymoron, but really, there are uncountably many of them. Rational matematicians are the exception, and even they are dense. :-)

Re:People in the know

[Ihlosi]

An irrational matematician may sound like an oxymoron,

Hello? i has been around for quite a while now, you know.

Re:People in the know

[Ihlosi]

Okay, I finally got the joke at the second reading.

Auto-update

[Smivs]

"...and the use of Windows on nuclear submarines" Talk about your Blue Screen of Death

It could be worse:
Sub Commander: "Enemy vessel has locked on and fired anti-sub missile. Impact in 10 seconds. Immediate Anti-missile counter-strike authorised. Target enemy vessel with Tomahawk."
Sub operator: "Incoming target acquired and locked on. Tomahawk ready for launch authorisation."
Computer: "Automatic update has replaced current program with I.E 8 as default. Computer re-booting. This will take 30 seconds"
Sub crew: "S**t!"

Re:Auto-update

[GeorgeStone22]

Sub Commander:"Fire the missiles!" Computer: *bleep blop* Sub operator:"What do you mean am I sure? Fucking thing.."

Re:Auto-update

[jDeepbeep]

"...and the use of Windows on nuclear submarines" Talk about your Blue Screen of Death

It could be worse: Sub Commander: "Enemy vessel has locked on and fired anti-sub missile. Impact in 10 seconds. Immediate Anti-missile counter-strike authorised. Target enemy vessel with Tomahawk." Sub operator: "Incoming target acquired and locked on. Tomahawk ready for launch authorisation." Computer: "Automatic update has replaced current program with I.E 8 as default. Computer re-booting. This will take 30 seconds" Sub crew: "S**t!"

This is where Clippy would be reassuring and helpful, is in a situation like this.

Re:Auto-update

[jcwayne]

At least, in your last seconds on this earth, you'd have the solace of knowing Clippy would soon be no more.

Re:oh yes

[Anonymous Coward]

Why?

Mostly because having windows on such a submarine isn't very practical.
You cant open them to get any fresh air in, there is little to no light getting in, and the view is just terrible most of the time!

This could be even Worse

[koolfy]

Sub Commander: "Enemy vessel has locked on and fired anti-sub missile. Impact in 10 seconds.
Impact in 9 seconds.
Impact in 8 seconds.
Impact in 7 seconds.
Impact in 12 seconds.
Impact in 2 seconds.
Impact in 1 seconds.
Impact in about an hour.
Impact in 4 minutes.

-- BOOM

Finished copying 2MegaTons file "Missile.snk" from "Vessel" to "Your Ass".

Thanks for using MIcrosoft Windows Vista.