27-Sep-10 News -- Iran's nuclear plant attacked by Stuxnet

[John]

27-Sep-10 News -- Iran's nuclear plant attacked by Stuxnet computer virus

Mideast peace talks extended one more week as settlement freeze expires


** 27-Sep-10 News -- Iran's nuclear plant attacked by Stuxnet computer virus
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 27#e100927

Contents:
"Stuxnet computer virus attack's Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant"
"Additional links"
Mideast peace talks extended one more week as settlement freeze expires
Pakistan minister accuses army of killing Benazir Bhutto
Jewish activists sail to break Gaza blockade
China's dispute with Japan alienates Asian neighbors

[ridgel]

Thank you for the clear explanation of the virus that hit the Iranian power station. I'm still a bit stunned that anyone leaves windows boxes controlling critical infrastructure on anything but a private, disconnected network. Does anyone know if this is just bad practice on the part of the Iranians?

[John]

> Thank you for the clear explanation of the virus that hit the
> Iranian power station. I'm still a bit stunned that anyone leaves
> windows boxes controlling critical infrastructure on anything but
> a private, disconnected network. Does anyone know if this is just
> bad practice on the part of the Iranians?

My day job involves programming the country's air traffic flow
software, and it's historically always been on a separate network.
This is a good thing, of course, because it means that someone can't
break into the network and crash our planes. But having a separate
network is extremely expensive, and probably directly or indirectly
doubles the implementation cost for pretty much everything.

So this network is an exception. I have no doubt that all of
America's factories, pipelines and power plants, including nuclear
power plants, are managed in exactly the same way, and are just as
exposed as Bushehr to a Stuxnet-type attack.

John