Sorry for the crosspost, but given my job as computer security and my hobby
in railroads, this was right down my alley for a day's news. Not a good
story, though, someone could have been killed by some jerk's propensity to
creating mayhem. Thought you all would find it interesting...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20030820-1412-csxdisruption.html
A computer virus was blamed for bringing down train signaling systems
throughout the East on Wednesday. The virus infected the computer system at
CSX Corp.'s Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters, shutting down signaling,
dispatching and other systems at about 1:15 a.m. EDT, CSX spokesman Adam
Hollingsworth said. "The cause was believed to be a worm virus similar to
those that have infected the systems of other major companies and agencies
in recent days," Hollingsworth said. The signaling outage briefly affected
the entire CSX system, which covers 23 states east of the Mississippi River.
A virus known as "Sobig" has in the last few days become the
fastest-spreading e-mail epidemic ever, according to security company
Messagelabs, adding to havoc caused by the "Blaster" worm, which debuted
last week.
A derivative of "Blaster" brought down Air Canada's check-in systems
Tuesday. Although the problem at CSX had been largely corrected Wednesday
afternoon, there were some residual delays in Amtrak service from Washington
to Richmond, Va., and points south, Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said. "Most
of the delays are in the 15 to 30-minute range on trains that travel through
CSX territory," Stessel said. Ten Amtrak trains were affected in the
morning, Stessel said. Trains between Pittsburgh and Florence, S.C. were
halted because of dark signals and one regional Amtrak train from Richmond,
Va., to Washington and New York was delayed for more than two hours.
Long-distance trains were delayed between four and six hours. More than a
dozen commuter trains in the Washington area were canceled. CSX will work to
protect its computer systems from further intrusion, Hollingsworth said.
»» Jan Kohl ««
computer security consultant
The Pits - http://www.theuspits.com
Castle Graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com
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