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South Korea Says Nuclear Reactors Safe After Cyberattacks

wiredmikey writes South Korea on Thursday ruled out the possibility that recent cyber-attacks on nuclear power operator Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co (KHNP) could cause a malfunction at any of the country's 23 atomic reactors. Earlier this week, South Korea heightened security in the wake of the leaks, with the defense ministry's cyber warfare unit increasing its watch-level against attacks from North Korean and other hackers. On Monday, KHNP launched a two-day drill, testing its ability to thwart a cyber attack.

54 comments

  1. Let's just cover the earth with nuclear reactors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then any hacker that sets one off will have to wonder if they're next.

    A simple plan, fiendish in its intricacies.

  2. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm pretty sure you don't understand what the Republican platform really is. I don't think you'd find too many Republicans advocating an invasion of North Korea. It would be pointless and stupid. The more direct threat to America is within - people on food stamps who refuse to look for work, government meddling in healthcare and attempting to determine who gets treatment and who doesn't, and a thousand other big brother type programs that expect you to conform and shut up and do what your told. North Korea is a new headline - that's it. The real issues you don't hear nearly as much about because they are not in a recently release movie.

  3. Re: and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah

  4. Re: and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Flatten NK - they're way outa their box!

  5. Here's a brilliant idea... by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lets just air-gap those systems -- unless someone can explain why we need to make a nuclear reactor accessible from the Internet.

    1. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Lets just air-gap those systems -- unless someone can explain why we need to make a nuclear reactor accessible from the Internet.

      So the bean counters and shareholders can check up on them and make sure they are serving them in the cheapest and most profitible way possible?

      Then later the IOTs can control your refrigerator and stove for maximum efficiency.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    2. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

      Lets just air-gap those systems -- unless someone can explain why we need to make a nuclear reactor accessible from the Internet.

      Most are airgapped. But with cellphones and cell enabled laptops you suddenly have new weak points you didn't used to have to worry about.

    3. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by PAjamian · · Score: 2

      An air gap can't protect against the idiot operator who plugs in his USB stick to watch a movie in the middle of the night out of boredom.

      --
      Windows is a bonfire, Linux is the sun. Linux only looks smaller if you lack perspective.
    4. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't a hard problem to solve - only facility-approved IT equipment is allowed. Cell phone tethering can be controlled by disabling USB ports and removing any Wi-Fi modules from computers - and through the use of IT asset management (anyone doing anything non-kosher is flagged, investigated, and disciplined if needed).

    5. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by Vasheron · · Score: 1

      Which is why USB ports should be disabled on computers that interact with the reactor.

    6. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      A jumper in the wrong place or an ice-cube relay being removed can ultimately have similar effects. Ban fingers too?

      A properly designed system has one set of PLCs for primary control, and a separate one as a supervisory system to ensure basic functionality always is online. The secondary system wouldn't control pump speed, but it would ensure coolant is flowing of the system is on.

      It would be relatively easy to keep a nuclear power plant from operating at peak efficiency, but unless IKEA or WalMart have started making reactors forcing more serious effects remotely is nearly impossible.

    7. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      Which is why USB ports should be disabled on computers that interact with the reactor.

      And when something in the control system needs to be updated to handle a new piece of equipment, what are you going to do...?

      Stuxnet has proven air-gaps are not invulnerable - and it used multiple vulnerabilities. It existed on a PC that was infected and merely infected a USB drive that was plugged in which then was plugged into a control PC used to reload PLCs.

      Of course, that control computer was vulnerable because being air gapped, it wasn't updated to handle vulnerabilities so all it needed was ancient vulnerabilities.

      It doesn't matter if it was a CD - the malware could ensure it got loaded on the CD as well so when it was stuck into the control PC, boom, infected.

      Unless the control system is completely static and nothing is ever going to change on it, there has to be a way to update it. And guess what - that PC on the air-gapped network has to get data onto it. And since it's air-gapped, it will be vulnerable to 10+ year old vulnerabilities because it hasn't had a software update since it was first installed. Oh yeah, you could install updates, but that's a vulnerability because the way you get that data across the air-gap is a vulnerability.

      And reasons for updating include general part obsolescence (you may be able to buy parts for 10 years, then what? Justify spending millions of dollars shutting down the factory, rip out the obsolete parts and replace the control system with a brand new one? Or just spend a few thousand, get the replacement part, and update the control system appropriately?)

    8. Re:Here's a brilliant idea... by funkymonkjay · · Score: 1

      It sounds like they did: "The control system of nuclear reactors are separated from external networks, and hacking into the system is fundamentally impossible," the presidential office said in a statement quoted by Yonhap news agency."
      I'd be more concerned with a Stuxnet type of attack.

  6. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    Haven't you heard? We've always been at war with East Asia.

  7. WHY? by amiga3D · · Score: 0

    I don't get why these critical assets are hooked to the internet. Surely that isn't possibly true? You'd think any sane system would have them on their own network sealed off from any possible outside connection. Why do they need internet access? To browse facebook? Porn?

    1. Re:WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reactor itself is almost certainly airgapped. The office network probably is not to get work done.

    2. Re:WHY? by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      The office network probably is not to get work done.

      Of course not. The Facebook, porn, and shopping, for the most part. Oh, and cat videos.

    3. Re:WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't get why these critical assets are hooked to the internet.

      And how do you expect people to check their Twitter and Facebook and keep Farmville going? How? Magic?

    4. Re:WHY? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The office network probably is not to get work done.

      Of course not. The Facebook, porn, and shopping, for the most part. Oh, and cat videos.

      Plus, nothing ever got done before the intertoobz. It was impossible.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    5. Re:WHY? by oodaloop · · Score: 2

      Why the fuck does everyone assume that cyber attack automatically means internet connection? Stuxnet hit the airgapped Iranian nuclear facilities via USB drives.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    6. Re:WHY? by burne · · Score: 2

      Most currently active reactors were designed, built and certified in the sixties and seventies. All systems in those plants are 60's or 70's electronics. Most won't even have something as modern as a pdp-8 to control stuff. Go watch the China Syndrome if you need a reminder.

      Interfacing 40 year old control electronics to modern computers is more than a 'airgap'. It's more like your kid trying to explain GTA4 to a stone age caveman without a computer present.

    7. Re:WHY? by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Most currently active reactors were designed, built and certified in the sixties and seventies. All systems in those plants are 60's or 70's electronics. Most won't even have something as modern as a pdp-8 to control stuff. Go watch the China Syndrome if you need a reminder.

      Having worked in the field, I need to call bullshit on this. Umm, yeah, the China Syndrome was fiction . And yes, while many active reactors were designed, built, and initially certified (FTFW) in the 60's and 70's, they have all undertaken numerous upgrades and safety improvements since.

      Hollywood and Reality are two different things (hard to tell in the U.S., but it's true!). Nuclear operators have to work very damned hard and jump through a lot of hoops to demonstrate that their plants are safe to operate. Dealing with FUD dispensed by people who think they know it all because they watched it in a movie is the reason nuclear power is so expensive relative to other alternatives. But you can spout your ignorance some more if you would like; it's a free country I'm told.

      --

      Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

      Vote for Bernie in 2016!

    8. Re:WHY? by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Well since you are familiar with this stuff maybe you can inform us a little. Are these things really vulnerable to hacking? I mean over a network of course, anything can be hacked if you have physical access.

    9. Re:WHY? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      I don't get why these critical assets are hooked to the internet.

      They aren't. Of course, one might assume they are based on the article's title.

    10. Re:WHY? by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm not worried about some internet group getting into the systems remotely. A Stuxnet-type attack is definitely possible, but smart protocols (no unauthorized electronics, thumb drives, etc. on site) will make this very hard. Someone will eventually goof up, but even then there are so many overrides that executing a safe shutdown is possible even if the control systems are hacked.

      I think a physical on-site attack is far more probable and worrisome (terrorists with guns taking control of a plant). There is a lot of security around U.S. plants these days, but a whole lot of complacency has built up since 9/11 and a few thousand days of nothing happening takes a toll. 20 well-armed jihadis ready to give their all for Allah and their 72 virgins could probably get into a plant. What they could do from there, who knows. Simply getting into a containment and draining a reactor pool would be pretty bad if there was a significant amount of fuel stored (which is the case in a lot of old plants) but containable. They would have to figure out how to shut down and/or disable a lot of safety controls to do anything serious. The plant itself would fight them pretty hard. If they got physical access to the containment and tried to blow up stuff, could be bad but likely containable. PWRs have systems to cope with large break loss-of-coolant accidents, which is pretty much a massive steam explosion and loss of core cooling, as bad as things get.

      I honestly don't think terrorists could do anything that would cause anything worse than contained damage and contamination, nothing that would harm the neighbors. However, given the FUD already circulating about nuclear power (yeah, I'm looking at you Mr. Burne) I think it would be enough for them to just take the plant and then sit around drinking coffee. Even if they did no damage at all to the plant, got mowed down by the good guys in 10 minutes, the simple act would have the world shitting bricks. And that is what terrorism is all about, stirring up unaccountable fear.

      --

      Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

      Vote for Bernie in 2016!

    11. Re:WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No vital infrastructure should be accessible but the US government maintains that it's a threat because they intend to blame another country when the USD crashes.

    12. Re:WHY? by Incadenza · · Score: 1
      In Belgium they recently encountered an act of sabotage against one of their nuclear reactors at Doel. Did a lot of damage - including months of shortages on the Belgian electricity grid - but not anything really dangerous.

      Wtf stupid phone doesn't let me paste the link, but Google will find it to.

  8. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear reacto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Or we could just make sure the reactors we have are not connected to the Internet.

  9. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Lets be real. Seoul has more conventional weaponry pointed at it than any city in the world. DPRK doesn't need nukes to turn their southern neighbor's most famous and most important city into a crater.

    Realistically, no US President will overtly do a thing about North Korea. It has served China as a distraction and a buffer zone, and China ultimately will step in and claim NK as under their protection, sending in PLA troops like the USSR sent in Russian tanks if one of their puppets ran into trouble.

    However, this doesn't mean surrender to them. Let them make all the threats they want to, and ignore them, just like you do the Goatse troll on Slashdot.

  10. Re: and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am one of those people on welfare who refuses to look for work you insensitive clod.

  11. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure you don't understand what the Republican platform really is.

    1. Find out what the Democrats want to do.

    2. Denounce and oppose it.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  12. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear reacto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That won't save us, the internet is going to be everywhere.

  13. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lets be real. Seoul has more conventional weaponry pointed at it than any city in the world. DPRK doesn't need nukes to turn their southern neighbor's most famous and most important city into a crater.

    While not quite a scientific article, I think they get the idea better than you do.

    Realistically, no US President will overtly do a thing about North Korea. It has served China as a distraction and a buffer zone, and China ultimately will step in and claim NK as under their protection, sending in PLA troops like the USSR sent in Russian tanks if one of their puppets ran into trouble.

    DPRK is as much a headache for China as they are useful; they are as apt to embarrass China as to be their puppet to tweak the RoK and the US.

    However, this doesn't mean surrender to them. Let them make all the threats they want to, and ignore them, just like you do the Goatse troll on Slashdot.

    Ignore them if you want, cave to them when you get tired of their bluster, but understand that they are actively trying to subvert and attack the US. Just because they are incompetent now, I for one, do not suppose that they will always remain so. Just as Bin Laden got a lucky shot in, so too might the DPRK

  14. ok... THIS time by swschrad · · Score: 1

    there is always a next time for hackers, and they learn each time they get in. moral: disconnect from the web. VT102 terminals would make a dandy airgap, but they won't run the manglement crap.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  15. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear reacto by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    That didn't help Iran with Suxnet any. Their reactor WAS walled off, but a USB stick made the whole thing fall down.

  16. Heads in the sand, anyone? by etudiant · · Score: 1

    Coming after the Stuxnet experience and the recent hack of a steel mill in Germany, which forced an emergency shutdown of the furnace, with 'heavy damage', the complacent assertion that no cyber attack could cause a reactor malfunction just seems witless. Of course these reactors are susceptible to getting hacked, the main obstacle is the relative obscurity of the control systems and the reality that there are multiple different designs in service, so that a wide ranging attack is very complicated. By the same token, the diversity of targets makes the defense much more difficult, no 'one size fits all' protocol is likely to be effective.

    The hope may be that hacking a nuclear plant might be seen as an act of war, so not something most states would pursue, but the proliferation of devices makes it easier to create a hard to attribute hack. There is plenty of ill will around as well, so this is likely to be just the first such attack post Stuxnet.

    1. Re:Heads in the sand, anyone? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

      It is theoretically possible, but Nuke plants differ greatly in control architecture from PLC controlled centrifuges. Nuke I&C is really comprised of separate discrete control systems, and they differ from plant to plant. You would not be able to accomplish much without hacking multiple control systems, all of which are disconnected from any accessible external network. Also, the older plants still have a ton of analog manual controls as well.

      Software changes to systems very infrequent, so even if methods existed, opportunities are limited. Also, testing is done before putting systems back in to operation to ensure safety functions are working. Testing is done on a regular basis as well. Avoiding detection on these systems would be difficult, as they control logic is actually fairly straightforward (simple enough that much of it was originally done with relay logic).

      The obstacles to successfully causing a safety event are significantly more challenging than what stuxnet had to deal with.

  17. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear reacto by dbIII · · Score: 1

    It wasn't a reactor. It was a fuel production plant. It's likely that their reactors are walled off to a greater extent.

  18. Two days of drills by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It took two days to unplug an ethernet cable?! WTF are nuke plants doing on the internet anyway.

  19. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear react by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What, why? A covert, secret, illegal, sneaky atomic weapon material facility is exactly the one thing you want to keep on the down-low. There is nothing that it needs to know about the outside world. It doesn't have to coordinate squat with other plants for its operations, it doesn't have to update its Facebook tweets. A power plant is less clandestine, and needs to know more about what's going on outside. They have to adjust to the grid, and having a little warning about big up or down events helps to keep the giant generators from turning into shrapnel.

  20. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... no US President will overtly do a thing about North Korea.

    First the pentagon declares computer hacking (meaning cracking) "an act of war". Then leaks by Snowden reveal the NSA committed such acts against other countries. Now, someone has undertaken massive industrial espionage and laughable threats of terrorism causing the US government to respond. Chest-thumping politicians demand a counter-attack on North Korea. Since North Korea is already isolated from the international community, financial or industrial espionage will do little damage to the country. Worse, a counter-attack may affect other countries, such as China.

  21. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Correction

    1: Find out what the Democrats want to do

    2: Do the same

  22. Re:and if it goes down full stike on NK by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Correction

    1: Find out what the Democrats want to do

    2: Do the same

    Well, yeah, but not before denouncing it.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  23. "not my fault" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ah so.
    lost the vietnam war. 'twas the internet.
    plane crashed. 'twas the internet.
    somebody got shot. 'twas the internet.
    nuclear reactor (nearly) blew up (again). 'twas the internet.
    got a flat tire. 'twas the internet.
    wife divorced ... 'twas the internet, sure : )

  24. happy new year sms by HariniHari · · Score: 1

    great website and it is very helpful for us happy new year sms

  25. Re: and if it goes down full stike on NK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean like the U.S.'s domestic oil production that Bush couldn't pursue because environmentalists couldn't bear the impact it would have on their cause?

    Oh wait, somehow it's OK now because their own guy is in office?

    What about the environmental impact and all the noise of why the U.S. can't/shouldn't produce on its own?

  26. Re: and if it goes down full stike on NK by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    You mean like the U.S.'s domestic oil production that Bush couldn't pursue because environmentalists couldn't bear the impact it would have on their cause?

    Oh wait, somehow it's OK now because their own guy is in office?

    If you were paying attention, these Environmental Strawmen you are railing against are just as pissed at th e current occupant as they were at President Cheney.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  27. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear react by dbIII · · Score: 0

    A civilian reactor, to a tried and tested design, with the control systems built by Germans versus a one off secret enrichment plant built by local contractors.
    I'd back the former as more secure versus the latter just about everywhere, probably even in the USA given some massive fuckups in defence industry electronics at times.

  28. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear react by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Hmm, three of my posts on different stories all modded down within minutes, including this one on a relatively old story well past the date when most readers have moved on. It appears that I've annoyed someone who is very petty and has decided to list my comments then downmod them. Is that person going to be a childish coward or own up?

  29. Re: Let's just cover the earth with nuclear reacto by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    true. I don't think they have gotten to the point of actually building reactors beyond Bushehr and Isfahan, and both of those are mostly foreign built (by Russia and China respectively).