Someone thinks of Nero’s reincarnation and imagines him in the ranks of Anonymous. The repetition of the fires that broke out in Russia it finds no explanation and it is legitimate not to exclude the hand of computer pirates in triggering certain incidents. While the hypothesis may sound bizarre, it might be worth answering the question with two elementary considerations: how can a fire start and what can a hacker.
When you think about the overheating of remote controlled systems, you find yourself giving a plausible answer to the “how” and “what” just considered.
At a time when there is so much talk about home automation and the benefits of remotely controlling certain functions that once required human intervention, it is not surprising that in the face of so many “pros” there can be no contraindications or, trivially, vulnerabilities.
Moscow, fire in the laboratory of military technologies (third case in three days). The hypothesis: triggered by hackers
That domestic appliances that generate heat (from boilers to air conditioners) are reachable if they are connected to the Internet thanks to suitable built-in or retrofit devices and speak the same language normally used by computers, tablets and smartphones. The ability to be maneuvered through the network is not an absolute privilege of those entitled to it: if effective security measures are not in place, an attacker can establish a dialogue with these machines and, having gained control, force their operation even outside normal employment fees.
Entire buildings have long been attacked by cyber-vandals, but the fiercest digital pirates have turned their noses on industrial estates. The size or importance of the booty is proportional to the effect the raid can have on public opinion.
weaknesses
Some time ago, “building automation” enthusiasts had imagined an urban war that could be unleashed by exploiting some weaknesses discovered in the technological solutions of Tekon Avtomatika, a Russian company specializing in equipment and computer programs for intelligent systems installed in buildings, industrial zones and production complexes. Someone started talking about a hundred particularly fragile and defenseless Tekon “controllers”. Ease of boarding was determined by grotesque procedural errors in the installation of these devices. Nothing Sci-Fi: It doesn’t require any effort of fantasy or imagination. As is often the case (even in our field), the access data to these systems (that is, the account and password) remained those set by the manufacturer. These codes (e.g. the classic “admin”) were by no means secret, but were available in the documentation available online in pdf format and were therefore accessible to everyone. No engineer had bothered to replace the authorized user’s identification and associated keyword: those with bad intentions could trade freely, requiring no special skill or experience.
Just as machines that overheat and catch fire are overly “tameable,” firefighting systems can be hit and jammed and isolated just as easily.
Cooperation between the various hi-tech gang organizations has enabled rapid identification of potential targets and associated vulnerabilities. Sharing available information and keeping it up to date is the basis for coordinating efforts. That too is war. It has always been like that and maybe only now will it turn out that it can go anywhere without moving a meter from home. Certain episodes make the Russians discover that their cities are also a land of occupation. We should also think about it without waiting for something to happen.
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