I BET that this whole Blackout was due to the Blaster Worm!! Really

[KeyserSoze]

Originally posted by: Elemental007

Originally posted by: dmurray14

Originally posted by: Elemental007

Originally posted by: thatsright
Ok, I'll admit even what I said doesn't make any sense to me either.

But I stand by what I said. My gut keeps on telling me its the worm. I watched all of the morning news shows and no one can say why the Niagara station went down. It wasn't a lightning strike or terrorism. I still have my money on the worm.

Do you really think that a Niagra Falls power system is plugged into the Internet in the first place? And without a firewall?

You are such a fvcking moron.

I'm not saying I really think the Blaster worm did this, but your network doesn't necessarily need to be connected to the internet to get the blaster worm. For instance, I could have a fairly big business network that isn't even connected to the internet, or is behind a firewall. As soon as one of my employees goes on a business trip and plugs in his laptop to the hotel internet connection, chances are he will get in worm in a fairly short amount of time. Then, he brings his laptop back to the company's HQ and plugs in to their network, and bam - they have the worm. Something like this could have happened, although I think - I HOPE they're not running a crucial power grid off a Microsoft system.

Dan out

In this post, you are assuming several things to be true that may not necessarily be with a proprietary system like power routing that you don't even think about when it comes to Windows networks.

#1) obviously, they have to be running MS software that must have been unpatched and exposed even though it is a critical network;
#2) They must be running TCP/IP. Remember TCP/IP has only been in common use for about the last ten years now. Given the nature of the power systems and what I've learned in my one EE power systems class, the systems that route are basically coded at the logic level, it's not done in a high-level language and making API calls to a complex protocol like TCP/IP has too much overhead.
#3) Even if the main grid was running TCP/IP and unpatched Windows, why would the power system routing grid even be connected via a router to any PC network? Do you think they have a nice HTTP interface to play with the routing or something? Obviously under no circumstances would they even be subneted together, so you have to assume that someone knowingly created routing tables between PCs and some sort of network that controls the power grid. Seems odd and uncessary.

Yeah, Duhhhhhh!




KeyserSoze

 

[Descartes]

At least conspiracy theorists give examples as to HOW the correlation was drawn. You just drew the correlation and threw away the logic.

 

[NogginBoink]

I don't think it's nearly as farfetched as others appear to think. I doubt, however, that's the root cause.

Computers do not have to be on the internet to get infected. One user that brings his infected laptop into the office can infect the entire office.

I'm sure that MS operating systems govern office systems in the power companies. They may control industrial equipment as well. Industrial Control computers are often put in a closet and forgotten and could easily be overlooked in an effort to patch machines. (It happened to my work group on a non-critical machine that provides nice to have services to us that no one really 'owns.')

If the computers controlling the equipment fail, then I would imagine less sophisticated backups would take over, and a fault in one of them could cascade throughout the grid.

I doubt that's what happened. But I certainly think that "the worm caused the blackout" is well within the realm of possibility.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Geez, why is everyone being so antagonistic? It's not like he's making fun of your mom or anything.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink
I don't think it's nearly as farfetched as others appear to think. I doubt, however, that's the root cause.

Computers do not have to be on the internet to get infected. One user that brings his infected laptop into the office can infect the entire office.

I'm sure that MS operating systems govern office systems in the power companies. They may control industrial equipment as well. Industrial Control computers are often put in a closet and forgotten and could easily be overlooked in an effort to patch machines. (It happened to my work group on a non-critical machine that provides nice to have services to us that no one really 'owns.')

If the computers controlling the equipment fail, then I would imagine less sophisticated backups would take over, and a fault in one of them could cascade throughout the grid.

I doubt that's what happened. But I certainly think that "the worm caused the blackout" is well within the realm of possibility.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

There are A LOT of things that I could pull out of thin air that happened that I could use to define as the cause for the outage. Yes, it is well within the realm of possibility, but so is everything else.

 

[IGBT]

Could be..or some pimple faced kid with a computer someplace...

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: Descartes<br
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

There are A LOT of things that I could pull out of thin air that happened that I could use to define as the cause for the outage. Yes, it is well within the realm of possibility, but so is everything else.

Ad hoc loogey spittus.

As I said, I doubt that's what happened. But the antagonism of others toward this proposal is out of proportion to what's appropriate and I felt the need to defend the proposal's plausibility.

 

[bubbadu]

I posted this 3 DAYS ago and no one believed me that stupid worm is taking over the world.

-Bubbadu

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: Descartes<br
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

There are A LOT of things that I could pull out of thin air that happened that I could use to define as the cause for the outage. Yes, it is well within the realm of possibility, but so is everything else.

Ad hoc loogey spittus.

As I said, I doubt that's what happened. But the antagonism of others toward this proposal is out of proportion to what's appropriate and I felt the need to defend the proposal's plausibility.

I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

My dog's breath smells like cat.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

My dog's breath smells like cat.

My Korean's breath smells like dog.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

My dog's breath smells like cat.

My Korean's breath smells like dog.

LOL

 

[digitalsm]

The FBI already said it wasnt the worm.

In all likely hood it was some sort of accident or mechanical failure.

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: Angrymarshmello
That's just the stupidest idea I've ever heard.

 

[SammyBoy]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

My dog's breath smells like cat.

My Korean's breath smells like dog.

My breath smells like Korean.

 

[SammyBoy]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

My dog's breath smells like cat.

My Korean's breath smells like dog.

My breath smells like Korean.

 

[codeyf]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Descartes


I understand, but you didn't support it. I can pick two unrelated events and draw a correlation, but without evidence it means little. Understand that most people on this forum are technical, so high-level entertainment of technical plausibility is going to be scrutinized.

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

My dog's breath smells like cat.

My Korean's breath smells like dog.

LOL

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The Stigenator]

you know this could be a sorta cause..

its known that the power companies route their signals over the internet, and I know someone who works for SCE @ Diablo & Nipples (off the 5 freeway near San Deigo).. and I know she told me that they use windows for the most systems.

Its quite possible that this worm's unfortunate aftereffect is to get one unpatched machine and affect it.

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy
you know this could be a sorta cause..

its known that the power companies route their signals over the internet, and I know someone who works for SCE @ Diablo & Nipples (off the 5 freeway near San Deigo).. and I know she told me that they use windows for the most systems.

Its quite possible that this worm's unfortunate aftereffect is to get one unpatched machine and affect it.

Not so much. The "virus" couldn't possibly do that much.

 

[spidey07]

I actually think it could be a slim chance.

And YES, many power stations and other control systems use windows.

All it takes is one computer to run the worm and infect all the others.

AND!!! The worms highest activity was yesterday afternoon.

It certainly is a very possible explanation.

 

[rh71]

thatsright, you're wrong.

You realize the systems that went down are legacy stuff... meaning a Windows virus can't possibly do shiznit to whatever crap that it was working on...

And this was mentioned as a possibility but shot down in all of 5 seconds an hour into the blackout.

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Spoooon
Geez, why is everyone being so antagonistic? It's not like he's making fun of your mom or anything.

 

[AnMig]

"The FBI says its not the worm"

"The CIA says there are weapons of mass distruction in IRAQ"

"The cigarette companies state that there is no direct correlation with cancer and smoking"



I see the trend dont you?

I agree witht he SKYNET theory