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Malware blamed for fatal Spanair plane crash
- cjg 16y agoI suppose that the author of this malware was prepared to accept imposing financial costs on their victims. After all, it's only money, right? I wonder how they feel now that people have died as a result of their law-breaking.
- konad 16y agos/author of this malware/person that decided to run critical safety equipment on a network connected OS known to be vulnerable to many many viruses from many many vectors/ s/law-breaking/incompetence/ Spanair crash - Windows Malware implicated BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill - Windows BSOD implicated Incompetence and penny pinching
- gaius 16y agoShould be easy to implement an airgap firewall on a plane or an oilrig.
- keithwarren 16y agoAirplane crashes and things like deepwater horizon are caused by a series of cascading failures and in some way insinuating that it is just malware (or Windows) is goofy. Obviously someone has an agenda.
- konad 16y agoThe series of steps that allows something with such a large attack surface as a Windows network to operate as last resort air traffic safety shutdown system. It's IT Dept. incompetence. I'd go so far as to call it negligence, maybe even culpable.
- paulgb 16y agoTo clarify, the malware was running on the system that the mechanics use to log incidents. The plane had had three recent incidents that would have grounded the plane had they been known, but they weren't. The reason they weren't was a combination of the mechanic's neglect and possibly that the system was crippled by malware. Here is a better article (Spanish to English translation): http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ordenador/Spanair/anotaba/fallos/aviones/tenia/virus/elpepiesp/20100820elpepinac_11/Tes&sl=es&tl=en&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&h...
- ams6110 16y agoGood clarification --- a quick read of the MSNBC piece leads you to believe that an on-board system was infected.
- paulgb 16y agoThat's how I read it at first too. I think it's partly the result of a gramatical ambiguity: "(a central computer system used to monitor technical problems) in the aircraft was infected with malware" vs. "a central computer system used to monitor (technical problems in the aircraft) was infected with malware"
- DeusExMachina 16y agoInteresting, I read it with the second meaning and not the first. I'm italian and in my language sentences are less structured, allowing you to move parts around "almost freely". So for me it's natural to bond "complements" to the nearest "object" in the sentence (sorry, I don't know the right words for this). Is it different in English?
- StavrosK 16y agoIt's ambiguous, so the behaviour is undefined. The author should change the sentence to make it conform to the standards.
- yread 16y agoAirliners.net has an interesting discussion about it by industry professionals http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4904992/ http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/re... (and nutheads who like planes...)