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New York City Pushes Plan To Prevent Cyberattacks On Elevators, Boilers
coondoggie writes "Imagine what would happen if an attacker broke into the network for the industrial control systems for New York City's elevators and boiler systems and decided to disrupt them, imperiling the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents relying on them. Think it could never happen? Think again. 'You could increase the speed of how elevators go up or down,' says Steve Ramirez, business analyst, analysis and communications in the Office of the CIO of the New York City Housing Authority, which provides public housing for low- to moderate-income families in the five boroughs of the city. And if attackers ever successfully penetrated the network-based industrial control systems for the boilers, they could raise the heat levels for municipal boilers, causing them to explode." Maybe Bruce Schneier could run a new movie-scenario contest about ways this could play out.
These systems shouldn't be network accessible anyway.
!!!
Maybe these systems should be on isolated networks.
Boilers have release valves for a reason. Even if you could turn the heat all the way up the safety release valves would let go. You would have to weld those shut to explode a boiler. If the "evil-doers" are welding those shut you have other problems
"business analyst, analysis and communications in the Office of the CIO of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)"
So a housing authority needs a full office for Information systems and in that office it needs a business analyst (because that is part of information systems)?
Sound like a bureaucrat that needs to justify the job his dad got him.
How else would the turbo button work?
In a World where up isn't always the direction you're headed and going down will kill you, A hero will rise...
TERRORVATOR
*break*
Ted Buttson wasn't exactly the best elevator repairman "Y'know normally the buttons don't do this" (empty elevator drops from sight, crashes). In fact you could say he was the worst elevator repairman "Why do they build these things with all these extra bolts?" (elevator doors fall in), but sometimes it doesn't matter who you are if you're on the right floor at the right time "H-hey! I think these guys wanna do something BAD to this elevator!". Coming this summer from the same studio that brought you predictable comedy before comes "TED: Going Down" (close up shot of actor making faces with sexy music playing)
[NOT YET RATED]
crazy dynamite monkey
"Imagine what would happen if an attacker broke into the network for the industrial control systems for New York City's elevators and boiler systems."
Some people would have to take the stairs and others would take cold showers. A truly terrifying prospect. Elevators and hot water are conveniences; People don't die from the lack of them.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Just try to get into any big bilding without a security guard on your ass.
Get a boilerman's uniform. Wave your visitors pass. If the guard insists on accompanying you, look busy until he goes to pinch a loaf.
Half the reason Kevin Mitnick was notorious was not because he was a stone cold hacker - he was a good social engineer.
Kevin Mitnick might disagree. Replace curiosity with malice... the techniques still work.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Cyberwarfare means money. As most of the preceding posters have identified, most of the perceived threat is total horseshit. But because computers are full of magic smoke and fairies, muggles presume that a computer hooked up to a machine is a terrible threat. Haven't you seen the famous historical documentary, "Terminator" ???
It's just like the TSA - because there hasn't been a compumatronically induced apocalypse, we're doing a good job, right? Hell yeah, line up another raft of Cyberwarfare Funding Bills, and we need some more staff to hotswap the drives in our pr0n^W evidence storage RAID array.
good point .. but my real concern ... how the hell did the expression 'pinch a loaf' get coined?
Fear-mongering for fun & profit seems to be the new & improved USA business model, especially for governments at every level. Afraid of terrorists? Obviously, they are everywhere, and can strike at any time. Be afraid. Surrender all your rights & liberties, and (especially) your money to the government. The "war on terror" will save you, even from yourself. The DHS has spent over $1 Trillion fighting "terrorism" since its' founding. Is life without any risks whatsoever really living? And can one even prove that the benefit outweighs the cost, when success is only proven with a negative result? And the only positive results, aka real terrorism, for the past 25 years have been government promulgated?
The "war on terror" is a black hole the USA throws money into, without actually making anyone safer. In fact, just the opposite is the case. Vastly increased sovereign debt threatens those very government programs & infrastructure that do help to keep us safe, healthy, and happy. Our infrastructure, like bridges, public health system, national power grid, water purification plants all suffer from competition with the "war on terror". OMG, man-made carbon dioxide is threatening us with global warming -- quick, let's ship all our industries overseas. OMG, there are religious fundamentalists half a world away that hate us for our freedoms -- quick, let's spend $4.5 Trillion in 10 years on perpetual warfare against these people. Surely they will not hate us any more if we drop money-bombs on them along with bloody expensive military ordinance, including their wedding parties and funerals. OMG, someone smuggled the equivalent of an M-80 firecracker in their pants onto a USA-bound plane -- quick, let's spend $250 Billion on terahertz-wave body scanners and place them everywhere, not just airports. Before we surrender more of our individual rights & liberties or more blood & treasure, let's get the answer to "Who benefits, and why?"
The truth is, if you feel personally at risk of bodily harm due to acts of terrorism, go out and buy even 1 lottery ticket because the odds against you winning are only 1 in 175 Million, while an act of terrorism (a real act of terrorism not fabricated by government) is closer to 1 in 1,000 Million. Feeling "lucky" -- buy that lottery ticket. Ignore things like auto accidents with uninsured drunken drivers, or getting struck by lightening four weekends in a row when you go play golf.
Industrial Control Systems have no business with internet access to operational processes, rather than merely an alarm or data monitoring channel, in any case.
Perhaps compliance with new regulations? A service company could theoretically roll an update out accross a country or state without having to visit each elevator.
No you do that ON-SITE. This is not web services or video games. You have someone there locally to confirm it is working in real life when making parameter changes like this.