[GLLUG] Evidence of Trojan in Spanair Fatal Air Crash Case

Stanley C. Mortel mortel at cyber-nos.com
Tue Aug 24 23:17:39 EDT 2010


How in the hell could they leave a vital control system open to an infected USB stick????

Stan

--Judge to Examine Evidence on Malware in Spanair Fatal Air Crash Case
(August 20 & 23, 2010)
A Spanish judge will investigate whether or not malware on a Spanair
computer system had anything to do with the system's failure to raise
alerts prior to a 2008 airplane crash that killed 154 of 172 people on
board.  The official cause of the crash was pilot error; the pilots were
found to have failed to extend the airplane's take-off flaps and slats.
However, the investigation also found that a warning system failed to
alert the pilots that the flaps and slats had not extended and had also
failed to do so on two previous occasions.  Each failure should have
been logged into Spanair's maintenance system, which was found to be
infected with malware.  Three failures would have triggered an alarm
that would have kept the airplane grounded until the problem was fixed.
The judge has called for Spanair to release computer logs for the days
before and after the crash.  The malware infection appears to have
spread through a flash drive.
Internet Storm Center: http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=9433
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/229633,trojans-linked-to-spanish-air-crash.aspx
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226900089
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/08/infected-usb-thumb-drive-implicated-in-deadly-2008-spanair-jetliner-crash/1?loc=interstitialskip
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/20/spanair_malware/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38790670/ns/technology_and_science-security/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20014237-83.html?tag=mncol;title



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