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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."
The Microsoft EULA most likely states that usage in a nuclear facility is not allowed. Quite a lot of commercial licenses have such a clause to limit liability. I doubt Microsoft would be willing to sell a license to such a facility for any reasonable price.
From personal experience I can say that 'Windows on a submarine' really isn't an issue. The Navy uses at LEAST three independent networks on their ships. Two that I was told about and one that I wasn't supposed to notice on my own. These aren't connected together, and only one of them connects to the outside world. Even if they were running a completely un-patched version of Windows 3.11 on that inner-most network, they're still as secure as they need to be.
In the case of the Navy's most important systems, they're not secured via copper but instead by steel-jacketed lead.
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.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Nuclear subs are just one huge Faraday cage, right? Right? No really, they are... aren't they?
Radio waves don't propagate far under water, as it absorbs those frequencies. If an enemy is close enough to detect your wifi or bluetooth, they are close enough to have already found you on passive sonar.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Mutually Assured Destruction or Destruction. Asymmetrical use of a captured Nuclear weapon is surely a nightmare scenario, but a disarmament solution requires careful consideration.
Some who have read my criticisms of the Nuclear Industry may be surprised to find that I actually support the development of a reactor that addresses the issue of 70,000 tons of Pu-239 (and much more U-238) currently stored in reactor sites around America, simply because it's irresponsible for our generation to foist these issue onto later generations.
One of the core reasons I support the development of such a reactor because it is capable of utilising weapons grade plutonium as fuel creating an impetus for disarmament and, hopefully, slowly defusing the asymmetrical weapons threat.
Unfortunately, because there is no geologically sound Nuclear waste dump in operation it's totally inappropriate to discuss building a new reactor facility until a proper containment facility is available. Yucca mountain is not a suitable site because it is made of pumice and geologically active evidenced by recent aftershocks of 5.6 within ten miles of a repository that is supposed to be geologically stable for at least 500000 years. The DOE's own 1982 Nuclear Waste policy Act reported that Yucca Mountain's geology is inappropriate to contain nuclear waste, and long term corrosion data on C22 (the material to contain the Pu-239 and mitigate the ingress of water - yet another Yucca problem) is just not available.
We need something made of granite. The only human made structure with the potential to last 10000 years is Mt Rushmore, so it has to be an engineering project of that scale, because the logistical problems of transferring the 70000 odd tons of Pu239 to the spent fuel containment facility are so involved that you want to get it right the first time and only do it once.
Even doing that will probably take 30 years to complete, but there is more to it than that.
I was a big fan of the Integral Fast Reactor as a potential solution and in a way I still am. But the reality is 3rd and 4th generation reactors are a pipe dream because our material science is not advanced enough yet to produce a reactor design that will last the thousands of years it will take to use that fuel. If you are going to build reactors then do it properly and build a Terra-watt scale nuclear reactor facility the belly of a massive granite mountain with an attached waste facility and chomp up all your remaining plutonium or end all commercial nuclear activity altogether.
Why? Because Nuclear power is energy intensive *after* the energy has been produced simply because said technology (material sciences) are not adequate to produce a Nuclear reactor that has a life span that matches the geological time frames of the fuel. This exposes the facility to all the issues associated with de-commissioning reactor sites every 4 decades or so. A reactor design that lasts at least 1000 years and is a closed loop, i.e. the plutonium goes in and nothing comes out (except electricity and possibly hydrogen) and avoids all the energetic costs associated with mining, enrichment and de-commissioning/demolition of the reactor.
As long we are producing plutonium and there is no where for it to go we will have a Nuclear Weapons threat and this is the price we pay for opening that pandora's box. I don't hide the fact that I don't like the constant failure of the Nuclear Industry. But I'm also being realistic. I realise that the only way out of this mess is a well thought out and designed project because we have no other choice due to the nature of the materials. It entails redesigning the entire industry, and it's a long term solution. A well designed and secured facility resistant to attacks even from orbit because that's the type of 21st century threats it would have to face.
But it has to be done properly, and I don't think privat
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz... The Navy used to use ELF radio to communicate (communicate = notify to surface so we can send you something at >.001bps) with submerged subs - according to Wikipedia the frequency the military used was around 60-80Hz (at the high end of ELF). It has to be that low freq to get that deep, and you need to drag a huge antenna wire behind you. I think Wi-Fi is probably safe, since by the time you were close enough to find the signal, you could just plug a cable into the sub's external ethernet jack.
Except the need for the CO / XO is implemented in the form of a physical key, that actually closes the electrical circuit, something that can't be bypassed with software.
US submarines have been using walkie-talkies onboard for decades. Not to mention the not inconsiderable EMF put out by the vast quantities of electronics onboard. If this was a problem, we'd have done something about it decades ago... But as it turns out, salt water is a piss poor conductor of radio waves except at very long frequencies. This is something every competent submariner (at least in the US) knows, as it's why SSBN's carry radio buoys and every submarine mounts radio antennas in the sail and must come to at least periscope depth to communicate.
Plus, I believe I once read that the British subs aren't there for first strikes, but for last strikes. The subs exist as a way of telling the world that, even if you nuke Air Strip One to charred rock, you will not survive it.
Also I think the subs run with enough backups and redundant systems that as long as the sub is floating you can reasonably assume you can launch from it. The line that struck me from that piece was some thing like 'When you positively, absolutely, gotta nuke someone we'll get it done. Might not be today, but when you deal with last strike nukes you have all the time in the world.'