On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 06:44:02PM -0400, Steven Bellovin wrote: > > On Aug 24, 2010, at 12:32 19PM, Chad Perrin wrote: > > > On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 03:35:45PM -0400, Steven Bellovin wrote: > >> > >> And the articles I've seen do not say that the problem caused the > >> crash. Rather, they say that a particular, important computer was > >> infected with malware; I saw no language (including in the Google > >> translation of the original article at > >> http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ordenador/Spanair/anotaba/fallos/aviones/tenia/virus/elpepiesp/20100820elpepinac_11/Tes, > >> though the translation has some crucial infelicities) that said > >> "because of the malware, bad things happened. It may be like the > >> reactor computer with a virus during a large blackout -- yes, the > >> computer was infected, but that wasn't what caused the problem. > > > > The problem was evidently a couple of maintenance technicians who didn't > > do their jobs correctly. The computer comes into the matter because one > > of its jobs was to activate an alarm if a critical system whose failure > > *was* the proximate cause of the crash was not working properly. It > > didn't activate the alarm, which would have led to the aircraft being > > prohibited from taking off, because of the malware. > > > > What I have not seen are any statements attributed to the investigating > agency that support your last conclusion: that the malware is what > caused the alarm failure. > > I saw a very good summary of the official findings; I'll ask permission > to repost them.
I'd love to see it. I don't for the life of me remember which articles I saw from which I got that impression of events; if you have better sources, I'd love to know about it. -- Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
pgpW0QF5sQrBw.pgp
Description: PGP signature
