Microsoft Worms Crash Ohio Nuke Plant, MD Trains 817
stieglmant writes "For everyone who thought the 'blackout of 2003' was bad, how about this, according to an article at SecurityFocus, and another article at The Register, 'The Slammer worm penetrated a private computer network at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January and disabled a safety monitoring system for nearly five hours.'" Russell writes "Maryland MARC Train Service was shut down most of Wednesday morning due to what sounds like the MS-Blast worm or one of its variants. The local Baltimore news reports that the cause was a signal malfunction but CSX, whose communications system runs the tracks, has an article describing the shutdown as a result of 'a worm virus similar to those that have infected the systems of other major companies and agencies in recent days'. This indicates that the network that the train signaling stations are on is not protected by firewalls, at least to block ports 135 and 444 where the DCOM vulnerability is attacked. Wow, taken to the extreme, the exploitation of their systems could have caused a train collision and injury or death to hundreds of Maryland and Virginia commuters."
Taken to the extreme! (Score:4, Funny)
Then again, it probably won't.
Wow. (Score:3, Funny)
This could be big.
Thank God (Score:5, Funny)
What kind of engineer?? (Score:4, Funny)
Blackout not that bad. (Score:3, Funny)
Call me when that train is on a direct head on course with said power plant!
Now that is bad!
This is not looking good... (Score:5, Funny)
2. Japan announces 30 year program to build intelligent robots
3. New Scientist reports self-healing robots a reality, can survive battle damage
4. Arnold announces "I will go to Sacramento and I will clean house".
All I can say is that I hope the next
John.
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
The MARC network admin should be tied to the tracks a la dudly doright (sp?). Hope that signal to switch the tracks gets though...damn... That'll learn ya for hooking an operational network to the 'net'.
Same with the power plant. Your office is now located in side the containment building. Do you think they would pay more attention to the network security?
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What kind of engineer?? (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry about the Java
Nobody ever got fired for choosing Microsoft... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:No firewall? Probably not. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The network administrators... (Score:1, Funny)
In other news.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
Full and total deregulation would have likely prevented this from happening.
Re:You may all be laughing about windows (Score:4, Funny)
"Extreme" is the right word... (Score:5, Funny)
I think that's a little far-fetched, and almost amounts to fear-mongering. At best, it displays ignorance of how modern rail systems work. When the signals fail, the trains simply stop - engineers don't look at a broken signal and say "well, gee, I hope there's nobody in front of me, full speed ahead!" In fact, on most modern equipment the braking is automatic when signals fail. I don't know exactly how modern the system is in Maryland, but at the very least there would be a regulation that all trains come to a halt in the event of signal failure. They certainly would not go speeding around without knowing if there's another train occupying the same block.
Collisions can and do occur even when the signals are working properly - it takes time to stop a speeding train. But assuming positioning is all correct to begin with and everybody's following proper speed limits before the signals go out, there should be no problem stopping a train in time once the signals do fail.
Homer Simpson says... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This is not looking good... (Score:3, Funny)
New Microsoft slogan? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The network administrators... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The network administrators... (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, 'cause Linux could never be compromised in such a way.
I just love the way apologists try to compare the subversion of a single server compromised by a malicious insider via a local exploit to hundreds of thousands of computers infected by a (still spreading) worm that requires no human intervention whatsoever to aid its spread.
Apple meet orange.
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Funny)
You expect far too much from humanity my friend.
Re:more info (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The network administrators... (Score:3, Funny)
New Meaning to Blue Screen of Death (Score:1, Funny)
Had to be said.
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
Sometimes that's not enough. At my university, the departmental firewall did just fine in blocking the virus, until somebody got their Windows laptop infected at home and brought it to work, behind the firewall. Once again proving that great network security can be easily defeated by poor physical security.
Hard on the outside, soft & crunchy in the middle? The safety monitoring computer for a power system should be accessible only by floppy disk through a terminal in a locked room with pressure sensitive floors, a sound monitor, body heat detectors *AND* laser trip wires on all the ventilation grates. (The floppy disk should be run through a demagnitizer before and after each use.)
-a
who me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft renamed the MSBlaster worm (Score:2, Funny)
Now that is pretty lame behaviour from Microsoft, don't you think. And it really shows us why they really do not give us real input on what's going on while you boot that windows xp. They just renamed every error to "Windows is now starting up..."
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
Homer Simpson promoted to IT manager? (Score:5, Funny)
Simpson promoted
August 10, 2003
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield's own Homer Simpson was promoted to IT manager of Springfield's nuclear power plant today. Simpson promised that his first act would be to remove Unix from all of the power plant's computers. "Whoever heard of Unix anyway? I run Windows at home as do most Springfield residents. If it's good enough for playing games, it's good enough to run our nuclear power plant!", Simpson declared.
Re:The network administrators... (Score:4, Funny)
I saw a documentary on that once. Apparently that's EXACTLY how the CIA headquarters mainframe at Langley is setup! OH wait, no, that was Mission Impossible. Forget it.
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
For when the laptop has that not so fresh feeling?
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
"It looks like you are trying to prevent a meltdown!"
Re:Software Disclaimer (Score:3, Funny)
Interstingly enough, back in the day I was running trouble tickets at mitre.org. One of their projects is a thing called CAASD, which will network together air traffic control systems from around the globe. One memorable call was to help some uber-geek who was too much of a coder to figure out how to use Eudora on his Mac... anyway, he was busily typing away, coding some part of this CAASD project...in Java.
Re:The network administrators... (Score:5, Funny)
I feel so re-assured (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft's WMD (Score:3, Funny)
title through a dyslexia filter: (Score:3, Funny)