North American blackout's Microsoft link?

[Ned]

If a "worm" caused the blackout, perhaps Microsoft would share liability.

Perhaps I should dump some of my Microsoft stock?

[Urban Ranger]

Now Bruce Schneier supports this viewpoint as well

[Asher]

[Urban Ranger]

/me laughes at Asher's pathetic response.

[JohnT]

*JohnT at UR's pathetic troll*

My daughter just had a BM and I gotta change her diaper. Any way we can find a way to blame MS on this as well? If so, let me know: I can use the money.

[optimus2861]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
What the hell is "half-information?"

"Half-information" is making stuff up out of thin air when the report itself never states what software the SCADA computers were running. It's poor journalism on anyone's part to attempt to place blame on Microsoft/Blaster for this until the facts are known.

As an engineer myself, I'd sure as hell hope whoever designed those SCADA systems wasn't so incompetent as to leave mission-critical control system PCs connected to the internet at large running Windows -- if so, that's where I'd place the first chunk of the blame.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: North American blackout's Microsoft link?

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Was the North American blackout Vole related?



I guess we just have to wait for the final report. However, the estimation is on pretty solid ground. Such a revelation will cause serious damages, and not just to Microsoft.

I call serious BS. First, the system wide and intersystem failures occur at a relay and breaker level, so there's no OS issues involved. The operations and dispatch center people's jobs focus on restoring power and connections, but in many cases, the same relays override them until load corrections and isolations allow you to restart block by block.

Dispatch and operations center issues (of whatever nature) may be a primary cause for the duration of the outage and the failure to reestablish power blocks in a timely manner, but they are not the cause of the initial outages, or the cascading failure.

Another point is that the XA/21 is a transmission management system, so it's far from the only SCADA/EMS system in any operations center.

BUT IF YA REALLY WANNA KNOW HOW YA SHOT YERSELF IN DA TOOTSIES, the XA/21 clients or servers run on Solaris or AIX6000.

Just remember, when you comment on electric utility technical issues, you're in my turf.

[DinoDoc]

I love being proven right.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Well, when someone serves you a hanging curve right over the middle of the plate, you just gotta hit it out of the park.

[DinoDoc]

MtG: Troll Slayer!

[Boris Godunov]

Looks like the only damage being done is to the anti-MS zealots, who further look like idiots for their baseless, ham-fisted attempts to smear MS.

[Asher]

This is why my response consisted only of Tux with a tinfoil hat.

It's more FUD from Urban Ranger, showcasing again just how little he knows about computers.

[JohnT]

Well, look: Here's the crux of the issue:

Thus, if these deductions are correct, the real question is: Why are the utilities using Microsoft systems in their mission-critical networks?

UR, the entire article was nothing more than supposition in the first place. I thought the OT was the Internet's repository of truth, facts, and reasoned debate. You let me down, man.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Looks like to me.

Just play nice.

edit - that was for Asher, not you, John.

[MichaeltheGreat]

BTW, you won't find MS products in many utility operations system platforms, but that's because the ****ing utilities are still cludging around with legacy protocols from the 1960's and 70's, a lot of overpriced proprietary specialty hardware because of regulatory issues and/or internally imposed constraints (if it was good enough for Grampa, it's good enough for me is the mindset of most utility operations) and a host of other reasons having nothing to do with MS products specifically.

And choice of OS is really secondary in mission critical systems design, because you have to conclude that any single component, and unpredictable combinations of components will fail spontaneously and without warning. The neener-neener-neener Cheny wagging about which OS goes how many days between reboots is pretty irrelevent when you have to assume that (a) both will fail, and (b) the systems needs to detect that failure and hand off control to redundant components in real time.