http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-acoustic-hackers-could-halt-fleets-2013-11#ixzz2lAFZv7QO
By GEOFFREY INGERSOLL
Business Insider
NOV. 19, 2013
The next generation hackers may be taking to sound waves, and the Navy is
understandably spooked.
Speaking at last week's Defense One conference, retired Capt. Mark
Hagerott cited recent reports about sonic computer viruses as one way that
hackers could "jump the air gap" and target systems that are not connected
to the Internet.
"If you take a cybernetic view of what's happening [in the Navy], right
now our approach is unplug it or don't use a thumb drive," Hagerott said.
But if hackers "are able to jump the air gap, we are talking about fleets
coming to a stop."
For a long time the thought was that an air gap (systems that are not
connected to the Internet) rendered networks pretty much impenetrable.
Then the Stuxnet virus happened — an Iranian nuclear scientist with an
infected thumb drive walked a virus through the air gap and unknowingly
uploaded a destructive virus onto a network controlling nuclear
centrifuges. This attack not only damaged Iran's nuclear facilities, but
it also signaled the dawn of kinetic cyber attacks (the kind that cause
physical damage) and the revealed the vulnerability of air gaps.
[...]
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