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German Nuclear Plant Infected With Computer Virus (reuters.com)
archatheist shares a Reuters report: A nuclear power plant in Germany has been found to be infected with computer viruses, but they appear not to have posed a threat to the facility's operations because it is isolated from the Internet, the station's operator said on Tuesday. The Gundremmingen plant, located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Munich, is run by the German utility RWE. The viruses, which include "W32.Ramnit" and "Conficker", were discovered at Gundremmingen's B unit in a computer system retrofitted in 2008 with data visualization software associated with equipment for moving nuclear fuel rods, RWE said.
Smart move! Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Blue Screen of Death", doesn't it? Doesn't the Windows license specifically say it shouldn't be used for nuclear plants?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I must ask...
Were they falsifying power-plant emissions?
Yea, it sounds like total bullshit. Why would the software in the planes be copying a bunch of files off of every phone that is plugged in to recharge, and then writing all those files blindly onto every subsequent phone that was plugged in? That would obviously be utterly insane, but I don't see any other way to read that paragraph, and I find it hard to believe.
Oh no... it's the future.
Why does the charger even pass data??
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Specifically, it was the control board in a crane. That controller not connected to anything else, it is a standalone locally controlled item.
My apologies, I was thinking of another event. Ignore previous statement.
"As an example, Hypponen said he had recently spoken to a European aircraft maker that said it cleans the cockpits of its planes every week of malware designed for Android phones. The malware spread to the planes only because factory employees were charging their phones with the USB port in the cockpit.
Because the plane runs a different operating system, nothing would befall it. But it would pass the virus on to other devices that plugged into the charger."
Okay for a system to spread a virus it must execute code...
So does this mean that F_Protect have no idea what they are doing or are they just spreading FUD.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
It's not a charger, it's a USB cable. The same cable you use to copy files between your phone and PC. Maybe this should inspire designers to return to the old legacy of having a dedicated power port and a dedicated data cable, but such designs would not sell after the populous has had the convenience of one-cable systems.
The proposition "not to have posed a threat" does not seem to follow from the combination of "found to be infected" and "isolated from the Internet".
Were the computers isolated from the control board of the nuclear power station? That's the important question.
From the article:
a European aircraft maker that said it cleans the cockpits of its planes every week of malware designed for Android phones. The malware spread to the planes only because factory employees were charging their phones with the USB port in the cockpit. Because the plane runs a different operating system, nothing would befall it. But it would pass the virus on to other devices that plugged into the charger.
How does that even make sense?!? What is running on the charger for it to spread the malware?
The so-called "charger" would simply seem to be a USB port on a computer in the cockpit. Still I can't say as to how this malware uses this setup in order to propagate itself given that TFS says the original OS is not affected.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Maybe....
Its possible that virus on infected device causes it to write any attached media. Maybe the plane shows up as mass storage. Next victim device comes along and attaches the plane as storage. This devices does some brain dead autorun type BS and gets infected.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
That's odd. Why is that crane running itself? And why is it piling all the fuel rods in one big critical ma.......
Have gnu, will travel.
The systems were setup in 2008. They probably do run Windows XP.
And don't forget that most industrial control systems are not modified after installation. Vendors are notoriously reluctant to support any changes at all, including basic OS updates.
My employer has equipment connected to unpatched XP SP1 systems because the vendor won't support anything else, and the organization is not willing to spend $200K+ to replace machines that are doing their jobs.
They are standalone systems because of issues exactly like this one. If someone took an infected file over, it would be a long time before we noticed. There is no value in traditional antivirus without signature updates---which might be a consideration if the vendor supported it with antivirus in the first place.
This is what a lack of competition looks like. They don't have to support basic security measures because there are only one or two other companies in the world that make comparable equipment, and they offer the same level of support. So our security is screwed until the government decides to regulate it.
And nevermind all the man-hours we waste doing data transfers to/from these systems. That's just a cost of doing business.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Is there anything more that has to be said?
By any chance would this 'computer Virus' only work on Microsoft Windows running on Intel based hardware?
The fundamental question would be "why does the plane have a USB port?"
Chances are there's some reason for that, and if it's to load updated software or retrieve logs well that would presumably involve coppying/writing files to the thing you plugged into it.
If you plug a phone that presents as a mass storage device into the port that the technicians routinely plug a USB stick into for some matinance reason...
The problem with security patches is that you then need to re-certify the system. For a nuclear plan or other complex system that is going to be expensive, and next month there are a load more updates so you have to start from scratch again.
What's really worrying is the lack of physical security and appropriate software policies. On windows you can block access to USB ports with a group policy, for example. The ports should be physically blocked anyway. As usual, it's a procedural and management issue.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Yes. Because, of course, with increased radiation levels, the viruses will mutate at an accelerated rate and will soon be shedding from the site uncontrollably. Can I copyright this plot before Stan Lee steals it?
But there is a lot of concern about security at German nuclear plants. http://m.dw.com/en/safety-chec...
This is what a lack of competition looks like.
Not at all. There's quite heavy competition in the control system market, both for small SCADA systems, mid sized PLCs, and large DCSs'. What you're seeing here are architectural effects at work.
What's the point of securing a system on the OS level when the vendor recommends a heavily tiered network architecture combined with physical security that doesn't even expose ports of a PC? This here is a result. Malware which did nothing, though chances are if the vendor's recommendations were followed they wouldn't have the malware in the first place.
The man-hours you're spending (not wasting) is the standard method of working with these systems, and that has nothing to with competition or the fact that your system is running Windows XP.
I bet they are talking about the Airbus Navaero electronic flight bag (EFB) system. It's a standalone add-on system with a large touch screen used for electronic charts, manuals and performance calculations, separate from the actual airplane systems. It can receive certain information from the Flight Management System (airplane and flight ID, GPS position) but as far as I know cannot send anything back. At least I hope it can't. We certainly have to copy the performance data from the EFB into the FMS manually.
Guess what wonderful choice they made for the EFB operating system? Yep, why use common sense if you can use Windoze? It has two USB ports that are strictly for maintenance use (updates), and in my company they screwed a metal plate over those ports to keep us from charging our phones from them. I guess that was a wise precaution, although I doubt it would be enough to keep a determined hacker at bay.
Maybe the plane shows up as mass storage.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 full of hard drives?
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?