Virus attacks Siemens' industrial control systems

[muckshifter]

Industrial control systems built by engineering giant Siemens are being targeted by computer hackers. A virus is currently circulating that activates an unusual kind of malicious software, which some analysts describe as 'corporate espionage'.

The Stuxnet virus is spread by devices plugged into usb computer ports and tries to steal data from computer systems used to monitor large automated plants. These could range from manufacturing to power generation to water treatment.

Siemens, one of the world's largest makers of such industrial automated systems has that it has learned of only one customer whose industrial control systems have been infected. However, researchers analysing the virus warn that it surfaced several weeks ago and is now attempting several thousand infection attempts daily. The malicious software, or malware, is only activated if it lands on a computer running the Siemens systems software.

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[TriplexDread]

Holy crap

 

[TriplexDread]

Just an update on ya thread mucks;

Microsoft on Monday rushed out an emergency patch for a critical vulnerability that criminals are exploiting to install malware on all supported versions of the Windows operating system.

When the flaw first came to public attention three weeks ago it was being used to attack SCADA — supervisory control and data acquisition — systems that control sensitive equipment at power plants, gas refineries and other other critical infrastructure.

Since then it's been used to install general-purpose malware from Zeus and other do-it-yourself crimeware kits used to siphon credit card numbers and other sensitive data from compromised computers. The Windows flaw resides in a shortcut feature that makes it easy to store commonly accessed files and folders on the operating-system desktop.

Users who employed a stopgap FixIt published two weeks ago should roll back their machines using the “disable workaround” feature Those who don't follow this advice will find that icons fail to display properly causing folders and files to appear white without any of the customary graphics.

Users will most likely have to reboot their machines twice — once after uninstalling the workaround and again after installing the update.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-aug.mspx