Trojan Computer Malware Contributed to Fatal Plane Crash

Trojan Computer Malware Contributed to Fatal Plane Crash

www.spiegel.de

A malicious software could be a contributing factor to one of the worst plane crash in Spain. Because of infection by Trojan software is a monitoring computer did not beat in time alarm. A judge has now ordered a detailed analysis of related data .

Almost exactly two years ago, on August 19 , 2008, plunged the Spanair flight JK 5022 from Madrid in brief at the start , 154 of the 172 people on board died . It was one of the worst air disasters that had occurred in Spain so far . The search for the reasons of the crash continues today . New information suggests that a malicious software , kno

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Anyone who has their own Internet connection, and PC has heard of a Trojan virus, and possibly even encountered one on their system. But I bet most people never thought such malware could be found on the communication system of a commercial airliner, me included.

Well that is the startling claim being made by an internal investigation into the tragic 2008 Spainair crash which killed 154 of the 172 people on board. It is believed that the communication system on board the flight was infected with a Trojan on the day of the fateful accident.

The Trojan infecting the system may have interrupted emergency communications to the pilots on board the flight. In all Spainair flights a central computer system monitors technical performance of aircraft, and after an error occurs several times in succession the system sends a warning to the pilots alerting them of the fault and allowing them to take the necessary precaution. It was this system that was infected.

Well for anyone out there who spends their time making Trojans and might be reading this, I think you're scum, I thought that before reading this article and this has galvanised my view of your pointless existence.

Note: Unfortunately the original article I used for the thread is not in English and has to be translated. For those of you like myself who have given in to our future overlords Google you will be able to translate using the toolbar. Otherwise the same story can be found in the additional news links.

www.spiegel.de
(visit the link for the full news article)

It doesn't seem like they know it yet for sure. Maybe it's a way to pass-off blame for a software bug. I wonder how they arrived at this possibility. Surely an evaluation of the software itself should reveal anything that shouldn't be there like changes to binaries.

I want know what "partly responsible for the accident" means if also being suggested as the cause.

[edit on 8/21/2010 by EnlightenUp]

Originally posted by Big Raging Loner

Well for anyone out there who spends their time making Trojans and might be reading this, I think you're scum, I thought that before reading this article and this has galvanised my view of your pointless existence.

www.spiegel.de
(visit the link for the full news article)

Bablefish continues with the translation from der Speigal,"As the Spanish daily paper " El Pais" (Friday edition) reported, possibly a computer, which is located in the splinter air firm center on Mallorca, failed due to a Trojan inheritance case. The task of this computer is it to supervise the technical condition of splinter airs airplane fleet. As soon as a technical of problems arises in similar way three times in succession, the system is to cause a warning which the pilots of the questionable machine on the problem refers to. Now an internal investigation resulted in that the questionable computer was stricken at the fateful day of a Trojanersoftware, which possibly prevented that the system could spend such warnings in time. Otherwise, thus El Pais, would have been possibly prevented the start of the airplane.'

So it does seem that a Trojan was in one of the assessory computers that would have notified ATC. Sadly, many of the Trojans are coming out of China these days. The Red Flu is always attacking our computers and if you have the right kind of firewall program, you can trace these attacks right back to WongFu!
Red B*snip*rds
PS,
just as sad, while others on ATS banter about homosexuality, or topicis like "my shirt buttons are talking to me again", important threads like these go overlooked.
SNF

[edit on 21-8-2010 by Violater1]

Well for anyone out there who spends their time making Trojans and might be reading this, I think you're scum, I thought that before reading this article and this has galvanised my view of your pointless existence.

i personally built trojans and remote controlled virus while teaming with the CdC

problem with that ?

[edit on 22-8-2010 by OTTOKARMA]

I dont know the circumstances in this crash,But i fear some pilots may have lost some of the basic skills of flying,because they trained and have only flown aircraft that are reliant on computer systems.When these computer systems fail some people are overwhelmed and forget to just fly the plane.

[edit on 21-8-2010 by 12voltz]

reply to post by OTTOKARMA


problem with that ?

No sir, sorry sir, I don't have a problem with that... Please don't send any of your trojans after me...



You're a big man online, yes?

[edit on 23-8-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

Originally posted by Big Raging Loner


But I bet most people never thought such malware could be found on the communication system of a commercial airliner, me included.

Do you remember this story .......


Space Station Computer Virus Raises Security Concerns

It turned out to be a fairly benign intruder , but worrisome none the less.

A Chinese connection ...... of sorts.

According to Symantec - maker of the popular Norton antivirus software - the Gammima worm's only purpose is to steal usernames and passwords from 10 online games popular in China.
It can travel on removable media like flash drives and is classified as a low threat that is easy to remove.

link

Interesting. I am thinking about a way how they could get a virus written specially for a plane on to board.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner



did i threatened you ?
no, if you read what i wrote .

So , why ridiculising yourself with that kind of childish comments ?

And next time you have something to tell me, say it publicly , instead of on my profile

Comment from: Big Raging Loner on: 23-8-2010 @ 08:13 Hello there, so you make trojan viruses? Then I feel sorry for you. Anyway happy trojan making. I hope you enjoy your contributions to humanity as much as everyone else does. IE about as much as a hypodermic needle in the eye.

they need to use a Mac!

2nd

reply to post by acidrop


It may not have been specially written for the aircraft, although it very well could have been - and that is very worrying.

I know nothing about the hardware or the software/operating systems they use, but very rarely is a system built from the ground up... You take you requirements and you look around for the building blocks of existing code in repositories, then you put all this together, you fill in the gaps, customise the code to get everything working together.

And then maybe the trogen can get on via updates, sloppy data practices, maybe last time that particular black box was pulled out of the aircraft and put on a test rig... There could be many ways either intentional or otherwise and the trogen may just have happened to find a compatible system that it could infect, maybe in strange and unexpected ways.

btw, it's hard to be sure from that article as it's another less than perfect translation

I would laugh if this werent such a tragic happenstance. Wow could you imagine if we all were reliant on technology? hold up yeah thats right we are lol sorry

t may not have been specially written for the aircraft

You're totaly right

Aircract use totaly different OS than the usual ones for laptops or desktops computers

the design required for a trojan need a specific target tio be deployed efficiently
so i doubt a trojan caused the crash

a simple exemple: a trojan is harmful only if someone control it remotely
left by itself, the trojan dont really do anythings without commands, its way more different than a worm

some viruses are diffents, worms propagating via classic trojans and "man in the middle"

well anyways i dont believe for a second about the "trojan that crashed a plane"

Flight software esp in todays aircraft are by nature a closed system. Its not a matter of "dialing up" the aircraft in question or having the pilot mistakingly follow the wrong link while surfing using the avionics systems.

As pointed out aircraft do not use a MS of Mac for thier systems and such a Trojan would have to be uploaded by someone with direct access to the aircraft, inserted as part of an upgrade, and/or inserted when the software was initaly coded.

I am not familiar with the process of updating avionic software but I suspect its more complicated than inserting a jump drive .......

Originally posted by FredT
I am not familiar with the process of updating avionic software but I suspect its more complicated than inserting a jump drive .......

I've seen footage of front line pilots getting into (or out of) their Ah64's or their F22's whatever it may be and they always carry mission specific updates on cartridges that resemble the old magnetic mass storage cartridges...

Presumably civil aircraft have something similar for their various routes, that could be one route, I very much hope it's not that simple! Also I would have thought that the various models of kit have periodic software updates from the manufacturer, someone on the inside could maybe get some code in there somehow.

Whatever it's definitely not as simple as browsing porn sites in the early hours

reply to post by OTTOKARMA


So you make virus/Trojans with the intent to harm other computers on purpose?

Or

Are you working on coding to help with program security holes for companies?

reply to post by Now_Then



But those cartriges (i have seen them as well) relate to mission specific information like terrain, targeting etc

But those systems would not interact with the "flight laws" that govern the FADEC, fly by wire etc.

reply to post by Now_Then


Thanks for the replies folks. In particular thank you OTTOKARMA for coming back to the thread, and as of yet no Trojans on my system Just kidding.

NowThen and Fred T your comments I find quite a scary prospect. Are we basically talking about the deliberate infiltration of the airports communication system? As the likelihood of a Trojan entering by chance is tantamount to impossible?

How realistic is it that a Trojan could enter the system while an update on some multipurpose software is carried out? I am certainly no expert and these are questions I would love to have answers to.

OTTOKARMA in response to your comment;

well anyways i dont believe for a second about the "trojan that crashed a plane"

You mention as well that Trojans must be piloted by an operator. Does this mean that if a Trojan was indeed the cause or partial cause of this air crash, that someone somewhere was controlling this virus during the planes fatal flight?

If so this could be a new form of sabotage by cyber proxy...

I think it's cooked up to be honest..

If it really would've been a trojan, it would have infected more then just one plane or computer (more crashes). Maybe they need a few cyber crime events to push more internet control and had some unexplained plane crash lying around.