Hackers shut down plant by targeting its safety system

Hackers have already attacked critical infrastructure, but now they’re launching campaigns that could have dire consequences. FireEye reported that a plant of an unmentioned nature and location (other firms believe it’s in the Middle East) was forced to shut down after a hack targeted its industrial safety system — it’s the first known instance of a breach like this taking place. While the digital assault was clearly serious in and of itself, there are hints that it could have been much worse.

The malware, nicknamed Triton, hijacked a workstation using Schneider Electric’s Triconex safety technology (typically used in power plants). The culprits hoped to modify controllers that could pinpoint safety problems, but some of those controllers entered a failsafe state in response and shut down the plant, leading operators to conduct the investigation that caught the hostile code. Triton was otherwise fairly sophisticated. It would try to recover failed controllers to avoid raising alerts, and would even overwrite its own programs with junk data if it couldn’t salvage a controller inside of a given time window.

The hack wasn’t made possible by a flaw in Triconex itself, FireEye noted. Instead, it appeared to be an “isolated incident.”

While it’s not certain who’s responsible, FireEye said the hack was “consistent” with a “nation state” readying an attack. And that’s concerning, especially if the perpetrators learn from their mistakes. While shutting down a power plant would be bad enough, it’d be worse if the malware could fool a safety system into allowing attacks that would damage the facility and lead to a long-term shutdown or an environmental disaster. In short, companies and governments alike may have no choice but to prioritize defending critical infrastructure if they want to avoid crippling attacks.

Rinspeed’s concept EV puts swappable pods on a ‘skateboard’

Ah, so Rinspeed basically reinvented the exact same concept as the GM chassis that I saw back at the Detroit Auto Show back in… 2002 or 2003 I think?GM even called the platform the Skateboard and it had modular bodies to snap on depending on your needs (sports car, minivan, utility truck, etc.) The only difference was that I believe the GM concept was banking on fuel cell technology and infrastructure. They ended up cannibalizing the platform and developing the Hy-Wire platform instead (basis for the Volt).

The true extent of Russian meddling in Brexit remains murky

What an interesting time to be alive with regards to politics. If you want to utterly destroy your political opponent, or really anyone you don’t like for that matter, simply find someone to accuse them of sexual assault. As we all know, due process is a hindrance to justice. If you don’t like the outcome of an election, simply introduce the notion that it was illegitimate due to the meddling of a foreign agent on social media. Actual proof of such meddling be damned.

Pentagon funded UFO identification program for 5 years

UFO sightings seem to have greatly disappeared over the last few years, either they found us uninteresting and left or infiltrated our news sources and governments to suppress any knowledge of their existences…

Firefox faces backlash for auto-installing ‘Mr. Robot’ add-on

This is really really stupid. Like REALLY stupid. There’s possibly nothing that Mozilla that could have done that would have been more damaging to their reputation. Even auto-installing actual malware wouldn’t be worse (although certainly not better) because they just demonstrated not only the ability, but also their willingness to betray their users’ trust.Good job, Mozilla. You were winning back the hearts of nerds with your new Quantum engine in Firefox, but that effort is probably all scattered to the winds now.

CDC barred from using terms like ‘science-based’ in budget docs

This is pretty ridiculous… vulnerable = susceptiblefetus = embryoevidence-based = evidence-rootedscience-based = science-groundedYou can go around it but it feels ridiculous and reminds me of 1984 where they banned how things can be addressed.

The iMac Pro is fast, but who is it for?

Great write up as usual Dana. I just can’t wrap my head around who would spend $5000 on $2000 worth of hardware…but as you’ve pointed out I guess there is niche demand for this type of system running OSX.Yet, going the iMac-esque route for a professional product is so strange. Bringing back the G5-era chassis would undoubtedly be best for prosumers but then Apple can’t control the upgrade path (or lack thereof.)