The experts at cyber security company Trend Micro has provided the media a document, which implies that the world of the enormous potential danger. It turns out, incredibly a lot of obsolete equipment has almost no defense against hackers. And can be easily hacked, as demonstrated by the example of a huge building and factory cranes.
Vulnerability of cranes were old proprietary protocols for wireless control systems. They were developed in the days when more concerned about people’s safety on the job site, and the technology itself than about its cyber defence. In addition, it is only closed proprietary software, which can be chock-full of holes, but nobody will ever know because of bureaucratic delays. But if you know… hack and submit to his commands, the crane specialists Trend Micro proved easy.
And the same is, in theory, threatens a wide range of powerful industrial equipment of the past era. While it works and makes a profit, all statements about the need to upgrade, software updates, etc guidance on deaf ears. They too can understand – is that history does not know examples that someone hacked valve and staged Armageddon on site, like in Hollywood blockbusters. And to spend on defense from hypothetical threats to the business with no hands.
Most interesting in this situation is that Trend Micro made a private initiative. And experienced journalists recalled that even about ten years ago about something like that, tried to tell the agents from the different civil services of the United States, urging to change the policy of national security. But time passes, and various infrastructure around the world remains vulnerable to hacker attacks.
Source — Forbes