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German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

reuters.com

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Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#41

Post by duncan_bayne »

elcapitan wrote: post #12
phreeza wrote: post #10

Possibly important to note the timing of this admission right on the heels of the announcement of our defense minister that she wants to build a 'cyber' division in the army with 13500 people working there. Thats almost 10% of our armed forces. I could only find decent reporting about this in german: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/plaene-der-verteidigungsm...

Here in Germany that only means that 13000 people print out reports for the minister, while 500 people look at screens. 10 of them program the stuff that happens on the screens.

You have that many Australians working in Germany?

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#42

Post by jessriedel »

elcapitan wrote: post #11
TillE wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next sentence pretty much confirms my impression that this claim is almost certainly bullshit: > 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. That's just...not how computers work.

It's true that that scenario is not relevant, but the fact that there is a direct connection between the usb ports for charging stuff and the planes' computer is obviously a point of intrusion for attacks like Stuxnet.

Might be the case that the USB ports are for interacting with the plane's computers, and the charging being done by the pilots is against the rules.

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#43

Post by germanier »

jobu wrote: post #39
mabbo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern nuclear reactor design is such that you cant cause a meltdown without violating the laws of physics.

Unfortunately most nuclear reactors aren't modern.

As far as I know there isn't even a single one of those designs which was successfully built somewhere yet (as in: Is able to generate more power than it uses).

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#44

Post by batmansmk »

Let's just say it's not new.

Operators mostly watch the plant during the weekend while the engineers are not there. It is a security job: check if something turns red and pick up the phone if it goes bonkers. The operator has a limited access to the core process. Boring, and they get busy by going to the Internet and downloading random stuff. And yes they do have access to the Internet...

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#45

Post by tkinom »

batmansmk wrote: post #44

Let's just say it's not new. Operators mostly watch the plant during the weekend while the engineers are not there. It is a security job: check if something turns red and pick up the phone if it goes bonkers. The operator has a limited access to the core process. Boring, and they get busy by going to the Internet and downloading random stuff. And yes they do have access to the Internet...

Remember saw a job ads for PDP11 programmer to work on Nuclear power related project a few months ago.

One thing for sure: you can't infect a PDP11 system with Windows or Dos Virus, nor can one plug in an USB.

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#46

Post by iamgopal »

elcapitan wrote: post #12
phreeza wrote: post #10

Possibly important to note the timing of this admission right on the heels of the announcement of our defense minister that she wants to build a 'cyber' division in the army with 13500 people working there. Thats almost 10% of our armed forces. I could only find decent reporting about this in german: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/plaene-der-verteidigungsm...

Here in Germany that only means that 13000 people print out reports for the minister, while 500 people look at screens. 10 of them program the stuff that happens on the screens.

It's same everywhere.

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#47

Post by vetinari »

tinco wrote: post #28
eterm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A virus is something that copies itself. If something is copying a virus, it is infected. So the virus would have to infect both android and the cockpit to spread from phone to cockpit to phone.

Not at all, that's like saying floppy disk viruses happened because both PCs and floppy disks were vulnerable. Just imagine the cockpit to be a floppy disk. You plug your phone in, and your infected phone puts a file in the cockpit. Then someone with a vulnerable phone plugs into the cockpit, reads the file and is infected. Not saying that's how it happened, just that it's possible.

The hole in the argument is, why would the second phone read the file and execute it? We are waaaay past autorun.

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#48

Post by EwanToo »

zorked wrote: post #24
philfrasty wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, totally agree. They also have aggressive print advertising everywhere (here in Munich) for this campaign. I wonder if they can attract any real talent though? Only people I know willingly wanted to work for the Bundeswehr eiter did not have the grades to study elsewhere or went to Afghanistan for the money.

They have pamphlets that pretty much say "hey, you could earn more money and have better working conditions from a real employer but that would be boring right?". So I guess not.

That's the same as GCHQ say here in the UK, it seems every goverment is much the same!

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#49

Post by Aelinsaar »

this_user wrote: post #37
Aelinsaar wrote: post #6

I wonder what scale of disaster will have to occur before information security is placed under the same legal and regulatory scrutiny as physical security?

Even if you did that, there is still more than enough room for human error or sheer negligence. See: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-08/entergy-ag...

So because your house might burn down, you leave your doors and windows unlocked?

Re: German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

#50

Post by tinco »

vetinari wrote: post #47
tinco wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all, that's like saying floppy disk viruses happened because both PCs and floppy disks were vulnerable. Just imagine the cockpit to be a floppy disk. You plug your phone in, and your infected phone puts a file in the cockpit. Then someone with a vulnerable phone plugs into the cockpit, reads the file and is infected. Not saying that's how it happened, just that it's possible.

The hole in the argument is, why would the second phone read the file and execute it? We are waaaay past autorun.

Why would the first phone read the file and execute it? ( this is an exercise for the reader, not an actual question )
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