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Maritime Cybersecurity Firm: 37% of Microsoft Servers On Ships Are Vulnerable
colinneagle writes: A report from maritime cybersecurity firm CyberKeel claims that spot checks at 50 different maritime sites revealed that 37% of the servers running Microsoft were still vulnerable because they had not been patched. But what's most interesting is what happens when hackers can breach security in shipping environments, including one case in which "drug gangs were able to smuggle entire container loads of cocaine through Antwerp, one of Belgium's largest ports, after its hackers breached the port's IT network," said Rear Adm. Marshall Lytle, assistant commandant responsible for USCG Cyber Command.
So this summary doesn't even go into which Microsoft product is vulnerable, and how these vulnerabilities could be potentially exploited. This level journalism is what causes people to say that Windows NT left a ship marooned.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Drug smugglers in Europe managed to deliver 400kg of cocaine to the Aldi supermarket chain in Berlin. So apparently not all drug smugglers are good at moving their contraband.
Aldi supermarket workers find record cocaine stash in banana boxes
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Pirated versions.
yarrr
Hopefully that includes timely patch management, since CyberKeel claims 37% of maritime webservers running Microsoft were not patched and thereby "open to remote control risk." Granted, that risk is about hackers taking over websites, but it could certainly turn into a misinformation mess.
Also, I love the picture used for that article - a coast guard cutter in front of a ship burning on the water in the background - as though it's vulnerable Microsoft-based computer suddenly burst into flames and took the ship with it. Danger! Patch your OS or this could happen to you!
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
As i Greek, which his compatriots control (including those actually Greek but under a flag of convenience) about 1/3 of the world's fleet (by any important metric), and since 9/10 of global/international trade is done by sea, i ensure you that Microsoft servers on the ships are safe enough (and -usually- out of a hacker's reach anyway), so you Apple iWatches will be delivered in time... thank Greeks and Microsoft!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
The headline is 37% of MS servers on ships, the lead is about Port IT systems. These are of course very different things.
Well if they F* realty bad just send the seals into the MS HQ.
Never fear, *I* is here.
Uuh, Mister The Plague, something really weird's going in the system, we've got a user logged on, with the load of about four users. I think we've got a hacker.
I like music
Those servers are particularly vulnerable to flooding.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Do you need a link in every sentence?
Come on, someone had to say it.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Is that like Ruby on Rails?
That study is full of ships!
Table-ized A.I.
37% of wives and girlfriends are likely to cheat on you too. But what you gonna do about it? Dump your cheating girlfriend and just end up with another cheating girlfriend? What's the point of that? So most people just stay with their lousy operating system or girlfriend. Really it is all pointless anyway.
Er... presuming that the cheating is important to you, you have a 100% chance of having a cheating girlfriend if you stay with the current one but only a 37% chance if you switch to a new, randomly chosen girlfriend.
But... if you don't instinctively see that, then I have to conclude that on some level you want abuse from your girlfriend/software vendor. In fact given your track record of past choices it seems likely that your choice will perform worse than chance, although a probably bad new choice remains a better strategy than staying with the devil you know.
If you don't have the confidence in your discretion to improve upon chance, a randomly chosen girlfriend/OS is a reasonable next step. You should try *anything* that meets the obvious superficial criteria (e.g., is biologically female, has companies providing professional support services). In fact studies suggest that while attractiveness makes a huge difference in who people ask out on a date, it has no effect on their satisfaction with that date once it takes place. What we think we want and what will make us happy are often two different things.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
We say "Ship It!"
I thought I read "Microsoft Servers on Ships" :)
Can not be true, right
We are talking about hackable computers on ships and still no reference to Hackers? You people disapoint me.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Long time ago Risk Digest had an article where the latest and greatest air craft carrier failed left drifting in the water when the operating system (NT) had a divide by zero error.
Doing a global search the best I could come across was this one article.
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/12/emals_backfire/)
The article describes an incident where, apparently, a test of the US Navy's
new Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) failed because it
unexpectedly went in reverse, destroying 'important equipment' and delaying
the program by several months. The failure has been blamed on a software
problem.
Given that such a device only has two possible ways to move - forwards or
backwards - one wonders just how it happened. However, I'm sure that it is
far more complicated than I realise.
What is most risky is the attitude of EMALS programme chief Captain Randy
Mahr who says, "The things that are delaying me right now are software
integration issues, which can be fine-tuned after the equipment is installed
in the ship."
I think most RISKS readers will agree that on-board ship will be the worst
place to finish the software. (However it will be the best place in order to
claim to your paymasters that the project is complete and operational - bar
a minor software glitch that may not happen again. And even if it does, it
may not kill or injure anyone as long as we remember to tell everyone to
stand well away from the back of the machine as well as the front.)"
a lot had to be removed due to "junk charters"
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I figured they would of fixed this problem after the Gibson was hacked?
DiVinci returns.
If it is only 37%, they are well ahead of the rest of the world!
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
No, because if you consider ALL Mickey$oft Servers, then the percentage would be even higher, IMHO!!!