Is it possible the Microsoft LovSan Worm caused blackout?

[LeftHander]

I know that we are working to prevent the spread internally at the corporation I work at. Even though we have a very secure firewall someone at another location (one of 8, 10,000 employees) Brought in a infected laptop and it spread through the whole company like wild fire.

If the worm was brought into a power plant how many servers could have been effected? A unscheduled reboot could wreak havoc on power controlling software if it is running on Windows.


Any DU'ers familiar with power company IT systems?

Frankly I wouldn't surprise me if this was the cause. But I can't imagine that IT would be using Microsoft OS's at power plants....

Thoughts?

[gully]

1. I was thinking the same thing

And, wasn't there a terror threat regarding the internet recently?

[Kellanved]

2. There is already a Thread about this

And it's almost impossible - systems like that aren't normally connected to the internet and too antiquated to be influenced by it. The US have an outdated, inadequately maintained, too coarsely meshed and overloaded Power Grid.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=177967&mesg_id=177967

[sybylla]

3. My local power coop

said in 1999 that their equipment wasn't modern enough to have to worry about computer controls. Generating and sending energy isn't a complicated thing. It takes very basic controls. On the other hand, I imagine nuke facilities are at least monitored by computer. I suspect if they had any trouble monitoring their systems, they would shut down for safety reasons.

[ArkDem]

4. They might even have backup generators....

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