Hmm ...
Boeing (n) (onomatopoeia) - Sound made by email program to indicate that ransomware has been received.
WannaCry, the Windows ransomware that took off last May around the world, has landed on some computers belonging to US aircraft and weaponry manufacturer Boeing. “All hands on deck,” said Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, in a memo seen earlier today by the Seattle Times. “It …
I have been wondering about that name too, it's the name of the son of a German immigrant to the USA who's name was Wilhelm Böing, whatever that name means. This information has been deleted from the English Wiki for some reason.
Anybody out there who has come to realize that there is all sorts of "cleanups" on the Wikipedia.
Do you mean this...?
"Boeing was born in Detroit, Michigan to Marie M. Ortmann, from Vienna, Austria, and Wilhelm Böing (1846–1890) from Hagen-Hohenlimburg, Germany"
It's only the second line on the guy's own page, which is linked to from the first line of the "history" section of Boeing's page; and no it hasn't been edited since you posted that. Or is your problem that this isn't the first thing advertised on the company's page itself to anyone who doesn't give a shit about that particular detail / person...?
Yes, like the one member of the bank Hawkwind live a couple of doors down from me when I was young. We used to go round his house as were friends with his son. I mentioned the area he live on the Hawkwind wiki page, not the street, but it was removed. I thought it was a bit of interesting history around the band, guess not. They had a big tree in the centre of the garden which they'd turned into a sort of shelter which their son played in. Was cool.
I remember all the happy clappy religious ones getting infected (the only ones who would not treat a subject line like that as a bit suspect but instead assume another god squad member had sent it)
.. and obviously we never let them forget it
e.g. All the had a clue uninfected people went out and got new mugs, ensuring we picked a mug with either a heart or the word love on it (or both)
Amazing how constant reminders of muppet security practices encouraged safer email behaviour afterwards
I studied wannacry a lot because when it came out, my colleagues (boss) didn't understand it and got terrified. We didn't get hit, but not for lack of failing to patch. I can but hope that they have fixed that as much as I told them to; I left the company not much after then. I'm getting nervous now, and I wasn't at the time.
This is concerning, not because the patching etc. because people have either done that or they're not going to, but because we don't know how they got the virus in the first place. This is worrying because the primary method of attack was random uploading through network-available vulnerable hosts and random emails, I.E. deliberate targeting. It's possible that someone had a machine with wannacry installed in the travel to new machines phase and left it off for a while, but I might wonder if someone targeted this company in some way, and if so whether they are doing it again. It's also possible that someone deliberately installed it onto the system from a USB drive or something, but I seriously hope that systems in place are good enough to deal with that. Also, the original developers were probably the nasty side of the Korean peninsula, to whom aircraft manufacturers could be a target. Random spreading is possible, but would imply that there are other infected hosts out there somewhere. Therefore, we have to wonder if this is going to spread again. Also, we have to wonder when people are going to install patches. It's a year old, my friends!
Anonymous because my boss mishandled a lot of things, as I implied, and I don't want him to know in the case that he reads this.
...but because we don't know how they got the virus in the first place.
The Grugq put a post on his Medium blog about this, referring to how when WannaCry first hit it was fairly well targeted but because the software is designed to traverse systems it revealed a "hidden network" of connected machines due to things like permanently open remote connections to/from vendors etc.
It could well be that one of Boeing's suppliers got hit and the ransomware got into their systems through a VPN tunnel which is something of a worrying thought for a government/military contractor.
was Boeing's recent infection caused by individual Windows 7 users at the company NOT updating any more out of habit, because of GWX ? And NOT wanting to shut down work for half a day to WAIT for updates?
last time I worked on site, "the accountant" seemed to get a virus on her computer about once every 2 months. Yeah, it was probably from MS Word docs with "attachments" that were "invoices" or something. And yes, they were using OUTLOOK.
> "the accountant" seemed to get a virus on her computer about once every 2 months. Yeah, it was probably from MS Word docs with "attachments" that were "invoices" or something.
Around my neck of the woods it was the departmental secretaries. Who would override the AV's attempts to stop them opening said attachments "because it might be important". And when we set things up so they could no longer disable the AV, ring us up and abuse us comprehensively for "preventing them opening important mail".
You really can't make up this kind of mentality.
Ha! Had this happen the other day. Email AV/Firewall flagged an incoming email and the user was cranky he couldn't open it because it was part of some VIP deal being made.
I tapped danced as nice as I could instead of just flat out telling the user, this was the AV/firewall's job and it was working as designed.
I think, don't know for sure, that the US Navy had some shipboard Windows administrative systems, not combat systems.
What little I know about the USN (more than most folks, but really not much) is that each and every ship consists of a platform with a hodegepodge of weapons systems -- some quite ancient -- crammed into any space they can find that will hold them. Further, major upgrades are done during periodic overhauls that are scheduled many years apart because of limited yard capacity, so two ships that are actually configured the same would be a rarity.
I have trouble imagining a Windows based combat system much more complex than WFWG, but the military does odd things at times. Sometimes they have good reasons. Sometimes not.
They tried running an NT system on the USS Yorktown, which went dead in the water when an app tried to divide by zero. This not only crashed the app, but brought down the shipboard network. Probably the first time in 50 years that a zero crippled one of our ships.
Thank goodness nobody has been so foolhardy as to try such a stunt again.
actually I think it's something called "windows for warships" (derived from XP) whether jokingly or for real. And the OS has been 'hardened' and the computers don't EVAR go on teh intarwebs. That's my understanding of it.
But I've been out of the loop for quite a while. Last time I visited a sub (my old boat, which visited San Diego for decommissioning) I saw the "hardened" laptops in the Control room, but didn't take a very close look. They also said "no devices on the sub" so we had to leave our cell phones, etc. in the car before going on the tour. It was kinda fun seeing old friends from 30 years ago, as well as the opportunity for a close relative to see my old boat before it got cut up - literally.
"Anyone care to speculate what would happen if they did?"
Anguished yells from the cockpit of "Hey Cortana, what the f**k" when the Windows-powered guidance system decides to reboot to install critical updates, just as the pilots are in the middle of a choppy and misty approach to a busy airport...
This should tell you more about an apparent OS than anything else
If you don't trust it for critical systems, should you even use it at all?
That way it would prevent the kind of useless bloat that seems to be the symptom of some kind of industrial disease infecting large organisations.
Hey, supposed tech companies. Sort your core OS out. Everything else should be optional.
*mutter mutter*apple*mutter mutter*iTunes*mutter mutter*
Do you expect your car is being built with the same level of reliability of an aircraft? It would cost much more and with far higher maintenance requirements.
Or your TV with the same level of flight instruments? You would not be able to add Netflix until it's fully approved after years of testing and a lot of paperwork.
If your Facebook page crashes, you should thank the OS....
"Do you expect your car is being built with the same level of reliability of an aircraft? It would cost much more and with far higher maintenance requirements."
I expect the core OS to be, yes. The rest of the software, however, of course not. I was pointing out that what constitutes an OS these days is far overreaching.
"We are on a call with just about every VP in Boeing."
My first reaction was about the naivety of thinking that the VPs would be those with the skills to fix it. Then I realised that tying them up with conference calls keeps them off the backs of those who actually do have the skills. So it really is the right thing to do.
My fairly recent Garmin satnav gives a commendable warning not to interact with it when driving when booting up.
Then just as you get to a large french town centre it splats a full screen warning, that the SD card is deteriorating due to over use and will not get back to its primary function of navigating until you acknowledge the warning.
You could not make it up.