[IP] Malware kills 154

[Chad Perrin]

On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 06:44:02PM -0400, Steven Bellovin wrote:
> 
> On Aug 24, 2010, at 12:32 19PM, Chad Perrin wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 03:35:45PM -0400, Steven Bellovin wrote:
> >> 
> >> And the articles I've seen do not say that the problem caused the
> >> crash.  Rather, they say that a particular, important computer was
> >> infected with malware; I saw no language (including in the Google
> >> translation of the original article at
> >> http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ordenador/Spanair/anotaba/fallos/aviones/tenia/virus/elpepiesp/20100820elpepinac_11/Tes,
> >> though the translation has some crucial infelicities) that said
> >> "because of the malware, bad things happened.  It may be like the
> >> reactor computer with a virus during a large blackout -- yes, the
> >> computer was infected, but that wasn't what caused the problem.
> > 
> > The problem was evidently a couple of maintenance technicians who didn't
> > do their jobs correctly.  The computer comes into the matter because one
> > of its jobs was to activate an alarm if a critical system whose failure
> > *was* the proximate cause of the crash was not working properly.  It
> > didn't activate the alarm, which would have led to the aircraft being
> > prohibited from taking off, because of the malware.
> > 
> 
> What I have not seen are any statements attributed to the investigating
> agency that support your last conclusion: that the malware is what
> caused the alarm failure.  
> 
> I saw a very good summary of the official findings; I'll ask permission
> to repost them.

I'd love to see it.  I don't for the life of me remember which articles I
saw from which I got that impression of events; if you have better
sources, I'd love to know about it.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 196 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/attachments/20100824/73988baf/attachment.pgp>