From: rms at computerbytesman.com (Richard M. Smith)
Subject: Slammer worm crashed Ohio nuke plant network

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6767
 
Slammer worm crashed Ohio nuke plant network 
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Aug 19 2003 2:45PM

The Slammer worm penetrated a private computer network at Ohio's
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January and disabled a safety
monitoring system for nearly five hours, despite a belief by plant
personnel that the network was protected by a firewall, SecurityFocus
has learned. 

The breach did not post a safety hazard. The troubled plant had been
offline since February, 2002, when workers discovered a 6-by-5-inch hole
in the plant's reactor head. Moreover, the monitoring system, called a
Safety Parameter Display System, had a redundant analog backup that was
unaffected by the worm. But at least one expert says the case
illustrates a growing cybersecurity problem in the nuclear power
industry, where interconnection between plant and corporate networks is
becoming more common, and is permitted by federal safety regulations. 

The Davis-Besse plant is operated by FirstEnergy Corp., the Ohio utility
company that's become the focus of an investigation into the
northeastern U.S. blackout last week. 

The incident at the plant is described in an April e-mail to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) from FirstEnergy, and in a similarly-worded
March safety advisory distributed privately throughout the industry over
the "Nuclear Network," an information-sharing program run by the
Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. The March advisory was issued to
"alert the industry to consequences of Internet Worms and Viruses on
Plant Computer Systems," according to the text. 

The reports paint a sobering picture of cybersecurity at FirstEnergy. 

...

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