Discussion
RE: https://universeodon.com/@markwoll/117184401033919923
Is the US defence commissary agency under cyberattack? A whole raft of network-connected freezers and fridges in commissaries seem to have simultaneously entered defrost mode, heating up the contents. They're remotely controlled. Wouldn't be the first time: hacking SCADA controllers is a Thing (see also the Stuxnet attack on the Iranian uranium enrichment cascade in 2005): this could be a warning shot, "look what we can do".
@cstross I will never understand how having private companies providing basic services to military personnel isn't considered a showstopping security vulnerability.
@cstross Could be a hack, could be MCAS level stupid engineering, could be both. I don't know if I think China did it *if* it was a hack like one of the reports I saw speculated. This feels like something China would either do on a larger scale or not get caught until after they could actually flip a switch and defrost all the fridge/freezer units. Iran or Russia, maybe? Internal sabotage? The latter feels less likely unless someone very stupid got very lucky.
In related news...
The sheer hubris of saying "we will let software agents control anything in the real world" while stories of software agents "breaking containment" are timely and current... AND we have decades of critical infrastructure that no one has EVER bothered to secure... FFS.
@cstross Now consider the possibilities afforded by Internet connected residential and commercial building thermostats. Set all the temperatures in a city three degrees lower, spike the electricity deman, and you get instant blackouts.
@cstross Is this sort of info Musk’s Russian script kiddies would’ve been at liberty to share with grandpa’s old workmates?
@cstross The commissary I regularly go to is okay. That’d be at Peterson Spaaaace Fooorce Base. Home of Space Base Delta 1; yes, that unit badge with the hydra over a globe is totally real.
Really begs the question... why are the freezers network connected? 🙄
@adaliabooks Presumably they're networked to allow for remote monitoring and scheduling maintenance without needing a freezer contractor to be present on each base? (I imagine it's also something supermarkets are into, for that exact reason plus stock management.)
And I could understand that from a supermarket... but for the military? Seriously?
@adaliabooks The military has a LOT in common with every supermarket chain ever, namely: they live or die by logistics. (Supermarkets live or die by delivering the right amount of frozen pizzas and fresh milk on schedule: armies by delivering the right amount of MREs and artillery shells. But it's essentially the same science … )
@cstross @adaliabooks imagine someone messing with the monitoring to hide food spoilage then having a lot of military folks and their families get sick. Seems that would be worse than just spoiling the food in an obvious way.
@cstross One would think that an enlightened military wouldn't rely on potentially vulnerable "smart" tech.
@Ambulocetus @cstross What they rely on in this instance is likely contractors
@jimfl @Ambulocetus @cstross This is the case. Nearly all infra has been contracted out. Has been since... Farthest back I can personally confirm is 2006, certainly longer.
@drwho @jimfl @Ambulocetus It's not just the USA: the UK went there in the 1990s as an outsourcing/cost "saving" measure (an accounting exercise). It's capitalist ideology in action, outsource everything that's not the enterprise's core competence (in this case, war-fighting). A lot of UK non-front-line defense work got sold off to the private sector. The price then inevitably soared …
@cstross - the US Navy was already having serious food problems on the Lincoln.
@johncarlosbaez Yes, but this appears to be unconnected. (The Lincoln is in trouble because the US has lost access to 15 bases in the entire region thanks to Trump pissing off Iran, who retaliated very sensibly by attacking US resupply facilities. And its home port is San Diego, on the far side of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.)
@cstross @johncarlosbaez I read that they swapped the resupply to Diego Garcia when this happened. Then that likely led to the Iran missile attack on Diego Garcia that the UK denounced.
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