Australian power grid attacked by virus, Linux saves the day
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted October 8th 2009 4:46PM
posted October 8th 2009 4:46PM
This isn't the first time we've heard of an institutional virus outbreak -- even the crew of the International Space Station had a neat little scare not too long ago -- and now various outlets in Australia are reporting that Integral Energy, which supplies energy to homes and businesses in New South Wales and Queensland, has suffered a particularly nasty visit by the W32.Virut.CF virus. When all was said and done, the company had to repair all 1000 of the facility's desktops. Furthermore, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the company's anti-virus software hadn't been updated since at least February. Between the lack of anti-virus updates and the fact that segregation between the company's main network and the grid was "typically none at all" this story has all the makings of a disaster. Luckily, the grid itself runs on Sun Solaris -- and when control systems became infected, how did they fix the mess? That's right: by replacing them with Linux machines. A word to the wise: they do make anti-virus auto-updates for a reason.
[Via The PC Report]
[Via The PC Report]
I love it when a story has a happy ending. Yay Linux!
Wait, like the time you were offered a "Happy Ending" while getting a massage at that shady "massage center" ?
I guess they couldn't afford Macs.
...or they couldn't afford the work hours they would have to pay to remove Bonjour from the next update.
Besides everybody knows business computers are for games and...uh....
and the linux fanboys strike back.....
This is a reality of many Windows IT shops now.
In my company WinXPsp3 is a standard desktop and you are not allowed to run/connect to the network anything else. Yet, IT itself has (literally) pile of Linux LiveCDs which they use to repair Windows desktops and occasionally Windows servers too.
This is what happens for choosing Windows. While the MS fanboys revile OS X when someone finds an unexploited vulnerability they conveniently turn a blind eye when someone takes advantage of the Windows swiss-cheese vulnerabilities and writes a virus that brings down a real-world network (and a power grid in this case). This poor choice in OS probably cost the power company and all its customers millions of dollars lost in revenue and productivity.
Nice try troll. IF you just type in the password and username on the osx prompts you can do just as much damage on a mac.
Most virus's need the user to be an admin. IF the power plant was doing things right the users wouldnt have been admins and wouldnt have been infected with a virus
@ majortom1981
Nice try troll. In nearly 10 years of OS X no one has yet figured out how to write a successful virus. And just look at what happens with Windows. Tsk tsk.
If the power plant was doing things right they would not be using Windows in the first place.
Not only are you an iDiot, but you're also an illiterate moron.
This had nothing to do with Windows, this had everything to do with lazy admins.
No updates in 3/4 of a year to their a/v software, they were just asking for it.
At least half the worlds servers run on Windows, (like 0.01% on OSX, if that even), so if this truly was Windows fault, and the problem was that ubiquitous and prevalent with the OS in question, then stories like this would be popping up not only every day, but every hour.
Incompetence and complacency was to blame here, not MS.
Troll Different.
Half the world's servers run Windows? Are you on crack or just iStupid? I remember when even Microsoft's web servers run *nix. Perhaps you have heard of a little thing called the Internet?
My server runs Windows! And that counts! ;)
Why are these machines on a open public network at all? Scary.
ah yes, havent seen that worm picture in ages!
If this is the level of complacency at Integral Energy i shudder to think how quickly a directed attack could take down their power grid.
where does it say they switched to linux? It's all scada on solaris and they'd been running an Xwindows remote on a windows machine for some monitoring, not much chance of this windows virus doing much to an Xwindows session. the grid doesn't run windows.
they might have booted to linux to remove the virus on their windows boxen, but could have as just easily used a boot cd that the virus scanner can make.
Linux FTW :)
Conspiracy theory: Maybe the systems were intentionally [allowed to become] infected by the admins, so that they could justify changing over to the Linux systems they really wanted.
Interesting how (not only) Engadget have to turn everythin AGAINS WINDOWS or Microsoft.
This article: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/sinister-integral-energy-virus-outbreak-a-threat-to-power-grid-20091001-gdrx.html doesn't mention anything in this post at all. Further more, they mention that (and let me quote for a change): "Ironically, Integral Energy's computer networks are protected by a Symantec security solution, a source said. Symantec has had a virus signature for W32.Virut.CF since February.
"This might indicate the antivirus software was not updated in a timely matter on some machines or that the Symantec product was not able to detect it due to the obfuscation techniques used by the malware," Gatford said."
But I assume this doesn't provoke anyone to reading or clicking the ads this will generate on your site, right?
Let's then start from the beginning then. Why the hell you need AV on Windows at all???
Engadget isn't against Windows per se (and interviewed MS heads many times).
They simply scooped a story that some Windows-over-friendly sites have reported /differently/.
Mention of the Linux is a cherry topping to the story.
Funny, I abandoned windows years ago for Linux because I was fed up, but I keep hearing good things about Win7 and almost all that positive perception comes by way of Engadget. I won't be switching back any time soon, but as a third party who has no stake in either OSX or Windows, I'd say that the Engadget folks have been pretty fair with both parties.
"Luckily, the grid itself runs on Sun Solaris"... lol, it's more like coal... oh how ironic, Qld, the sunshine state :)
"A word to the wise: they do make anti-virus auto-updates for a reason."
An even better word to the wise: Don't use Windows in mission critical roles.
Linix, unix, OSX... all *nix versions have well established security records that are FAR better than Windows has ever managed. Because they have a security model that *works*.
The person who selected Windows for tasks in a public utility system should be fired and ordered to never work in IT again.