Hmmm...
There was a recent attack of that type against systems in Iran, lots of damage (on IT equipment that is) but few real material damage. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.
At least there should be the advantage that these machines shouldn't be connected to the internet, so that you'll have to get on-site to actually upload such a virus. One hopes, at least.
Read The Daily WTF, it's a website about bad coding, and I think it's mostly from the USA because the website itself is based there. It's not safe at all. It makes you scared everytime you use your creditcard or bankcard to see the number of errors and totally unsafe practices that surround banking companies.
If they use windows, it just makes me even gladder I'm not living near anything that can explode in a ball of fiery death that consumes entire cities when it gets a bluescreen <_<
.xex? You are an XBox developer?
If they use windows, it just makes me even gladder I'm not living near anything that can explode in a ball of fiery death that consumes entire cities when it gets a bluescreen <_<
haha I wish, I write codes for jtaggers, people that hack their xboxes to run unsigned code
Plushy and Jesse: Of course it isn't safe. Your never safe. Safe is an illusion.
Plushy: Assuming your talking about nuclear power plants: they really would not blow up because of a computer crash.
But it's not just that you're not safe. It's that I've seen enough code WTFs that I can safely compare the average piece of software with a paper wall. It´s only safe until someone accidentally falls through it.
We can hope that these kind of things run better... but I´m having my doubts. It´s possible to create fairly safe and hard to crack software. Most companies really don´t bother. Many non-technical people who have no grasp on the importance of security get to call the shots on security.
To compare safety, it's like replacing the chief of police with the person that watched the most episodes of NCIS. They might think they know stuff, but they're really completely clueless. And yet you can't possibly convince them of that, so you have to do as they tell you, and see everything be run into the ground.
I've worked for these people, and they're dangerous to the security of any software/hardware system there is. We can pray there aren't any working for the big power companies, of course... but still.
Plushy: Assuming your talking about nuclear power plants: they really would not blow up because of a computer crash.
IIRC, most nuclear power plants are designed such that in the case of a catastrophic power/system failure, the control rods drop down and permanently disable the something-or-other. As you can tell, I'm not too sure on the details, but the idea is that even if things go really wrong, the thing won't blow up.
However, if you compromised the system you could probably force it to do something that would blow up, but it wouldn't be as simple as crashing the system.
The article said that the main use for the virus was to cut power supply to nations. Not really make things explode. Except for dams that could flood stuff if thigs were opened remotely.
If viruses exist that can cut power to nations and cause dams to open and flood downstream, what makes you think that there can't be one to cause nuclear reactors to melt down?
The article said that the main use for the virus was to cut power supply to nations. Not really make things explode. Except for dams that could flood stuff if thigs were opened remotely.
If viruses exist that can cut power to nations and cause dams to open and flood downstream, what makes you think that there can't be one to cause nuclear reactors to melt down?
Hopefully, a hardware based failsafe. But there very well might be a way to cause it to overload.
If viruses exist that can cut power to nations and cause dams to open and flood downstream, what makes you think that there can't be one to cause nuclear reactors to melt down?
Cos "shut off power" and "open flood gates" are native functions of the system which simply need to be tapped into by mailcious software, "explode" is not a native function of nuclear reactors. To make that happen a lot of things, physcial things, have to go wrong on-site. They'd have a better chance of writing a hack to make you drop your keys in the toilet.
If viruses exist that can cut power to nations and cause dams to open and flood downstream, what makes you think that there can't be one to cause nuclear reactors to melt down?
Cos "shut off power" and "open flood gates" are native functions of the system which simply need to be tapped into by mailcious software, "explode" is not a native function of nuclear reactors. To make that happen a lot of things, physcial things, have to go wrong on-site. They'd have a better chance of writing a hack to make you drop your keys in the toilet.
Could hackers solve world constipation?
I work in IT and hackers "me font chier" if that's what you're talking about.
Litteral translation would be "make me poop" but the meaning gets lost in translation.
Hackers make you **** your pants?
that's what I was talking about with lost in translation.
more in the sense of acting as a laxative to help with constipation.
a PG-13 forum friendly version would kinda be "gets on my nerves".