5 Jan
2013
5 Jan
'13
3:24 p.m.
On 01/04/2013 10:07 AM, jim s wrote:
With all the targeting of industrial equipment there
may be some which
target it via trying to poke at serial and other interfaces from the PC
that the main infection runs on. Such would probably incorporate
exploits for input and communication to attached devices to inject code
into the targets with the objective to crash it. I don't know how many
attached devices running industrial equipment use the 8080 and 6502,
etc., but there are surely some. Perhaps a PC virus targeting such
would set of a modern day virus scan.
One aspect of a computer virus is that there must be a means to
propagate the thing--not something that you'll easily find in old 8-bit
industrial equipment. I've never heard of a virus to infect a wire EDM
rig for example.
Much of the early (pre-web) infection was done through the "Any software
title for $3" type of wire-rack sales as well use of BBS downloads.
My understanding of Stuxnet is that it was smuggled into the facility
via USB pen drive, not by the usual Internet route.
--Chuck