http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/scada-exploits/ By Kim Zetter Threat Level Wired.com January 19, 2012 MIAMI, Florida -- A group of researchers has discovered serious security holes in six top industrial control systems used in critical infrastructure and manufacturing facilities and, thanks to exploit modules they released on Thursday, have also made it easy for hackers to attack the systems before they’re patched or taken offline. The vulnerabilities were found in widely used programmable logic controllers (PLCs) made by General Electric, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Modicon, Koyo Electronics and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. PLCs are used in industrial control systems to control functions in critical infrastructure such as water, power and chemical plants; gas pipelines and nuclear facilities; as well as in manufacturing facilities such as food processing plants and automobile and aircraft assembly lines. The vulnerabilities, which vary among the products examined, include backdoors, lack of authentication and encryption, and weak password storage that would allow attackers to gain access to the systems. The security weaknesses also make it possible to send malicious commands to the devices in order to crash or halt them, and to interfere with specific critical processes controlled by them, such as the opening and closing of valves. [...] _____________________________________________________ Did a friend send you this article? Make it your New Year's Resolution to subscribe to InfoSec News! http://www.infosecnews.org/mailman/listinfo/isnReceived on Fri Jan 20 2012 - 00:46:09 PST
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