Article

2010-08-23 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Malware contributed to Spanair crash 2 years ago

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Posted by newc 2010-08-23 15:58|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 So can the programmers be sought for prosecution on manslaughter charges?

Can all malware authors whose programmes could jeopardise aircraft safety systems be charged with soemthing like reckless endangerment?

Posted by Bulldog 2010-08-23 17:20|| 2010-08-23 17:20|| Front Page Top

#2 So can the programmers be sought for prosecution on manslaughter charges?

Unlikely, a lot of malware is scripts and other kinds of crud cobbled together. The mildest forms cause things like popups, while the more malicious have rootkits which install backdoors into a system, create remote procedure calls to broadcast continously over a net eating up bandwidth and even spam certain executables over and over again.

Nonetheless I'd be asking how the heck the malware got ONTO the central computer. My bet is a maintenance laptop was already infected and when checking the main computer in turn infected it.

Posted by Valentine 2010-08-23 17:57|| 2010-08-23 17:57|| Front Page Top

#3 Another possibility could be COTS hardware that was compromised from the manufacturer (see Dell's recent admission that it shipped some of it's PowerEdge servers with compromised hardware.)

Posted by djh_usmc 2010-08-23 19:15|| 2010-08-23 19:15|| Front Page Top

#4 My question is who the hell programmed the central computer of the airliner with the same OS used for laptops, etc. An airplane running Windows? Really? That is a good way to "Blue Screen" an entire jetliner.

I would NEVER trust an airliner running Microsoft Windows (or any other Microsoft product) as its central computer. Who the HELL put Microsoft software on an airliner?

Whoever made that decision should be shot.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-08-23 19:16|| 2010-08-23 19:16|| Front Page Top

#5 This might be crap journalism.
I don't believe the airplane sensors inform the airline but doesn't inform the pilots... That would be a typical Soviet approach.

Posted by Phosing Big Foot3926 2010-08-23 20:48|| 2010-08-23 20:48|| Front Page Top

#6 From the article:

The airline's central computer which registered technical problems on planes was infected by Trojans at the time of the fatal crash and this resulted in a failure to raise an alarm over multiple problems with the plane

Meaning the computer used to track maintenance and performance issues on Spanair's aircraft was infected, not the computer on the aircraft that crashed.

A poorly written or badly translated article.

Posted by Pappy 2010-08-23 21:26|| 2010-08-23 21:26|| Front Page Top

#7 Come on, didn't you guys ever see the movie "Airplane"?

Posted by Texhooey 2010-08-23 22:40|| 2010-08-23 22:40|| Front Page Top

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