Posted on 08/22/2010 12:52:55 PM PDT by James C. Bennett
Well, let's see... there are over 1,000,000 known malware out in the wild for a specific publisher's OS which is used ubiquitously in many such buysiness applications... and only 17 for a competitor's operating system which is not used ubiquitously in such applications. Is it therefore unreasonable to make a conclusion as to WHICH operating system just MIGHT be running that wound up infected with a Trojan? Especially since the 17 that run on the competition will not crash or affect other running applications on that OS. I really don't think so. I think the preponderance of the evidence makes the conclusion reasonable... and obvious.
Per the article, it was a TROJAN that infected the non-real-time, non-airborne computer. Can you name for me a computer OS that does not have trojans?
Irrelevant. However, I doubt the Timex Sinclair 1000 has any Trojans.:^)>
The point, however, is that a malware Trojan DID play a pivotal role in this accident. Denying it is willfull blindness.
Really? You certainly seemed to be making a Big Deal of it just a few posts earlier... I guess we can consider pretty much any OS available today is susceptible to trojans, then?
The point, however, is that a malware Trojan DID play a pivotal role in this accident. Denying it is willfull blindness.
Denying is going on where? Certainly not I!
And of course, as the article points out, of MUCH bigger concern was the obvious failure to follow the pre-flight checklists by the pilot and co-pilot. This was predominantly a pilot error crash. The trojan on the ground support computer did NOT stop operation of that computer or its systems, just made it slow. And thus the ground crew took the lazy way out and did not enter the data.
It was human error in the cockpit, and human error on the flight line that caused this tragedy. It was most assuredly NOT the computer.
No, not you. But driftdiver has sure been trying awfully hard to do just that.
A series of events resulted in this accident. One of which, one that could have certainly prevented it had it not occurred, was the failure of the test computer to detect the failure of the on board warning system due to the Trojan. Is it possible the pilot would have ignored a WORKING warning system? I doubt it.
You can also read the actual conclusions of the investigation which, again, confirm it is was pilot error and not "malware" on a computer which caused the crash.
That statement is not supported by the article or any official investigation finding. It's FUD and sensationalism, period, and trading on the deaths of people for some "computer war" points you're trying to score.
To paraphrase the immortal words of Rahm Emanuel:
“Never let an opportunity to bash Microsoft go to waste”
a swiss cheese operating system that was not built from the ground up with multiple users and the access from the outside in mind
Exactly.
No matter which way you slice it or dice it, Windows is still Dos 1.1 underneath. With a vector table at 0:0000
I’ve never examined the vector table on an x86 machine running under Windows and compared it to one running barebones Dos, but I am willing to bet there are a few interrupts that Windows doesn’t front-end.
And even if they do protect the hardware interrupts, Windows wanted to make itself a one size fits all OS where stuff like Java and Flash can come along and do spiffy things. Spiffy and sometimes very malicious.
As a systems guy, I would never let ANYBODY tweak what happens when the boot process happens. I would NEVER let anybody mod anything on the system packs! (mainframes rule!!!)
Several articles on this accident have stated categorically that the plane's automatic warning system was not working. The ground based test computer DID NOT DETECT THAT FACT. Whether it would have or not had the ground crew allowed it more time is not at issue. It DID NOT WORK TO SPECIIFIED SPEED because it was vulnerable and was infected by malware. Those are facts that have come out of the investigation. You and driftdiver can dance all you want, trying to deflect the facts, but the computer Trojan had a contributory effect on causing this disaster. Period. it was not the ONLY cause, but it was a factor. . . and an important one that failed to prevent all the human errors that did indeed pile up to kill all those people.
Damn it, Puget! I DID NOT WRITE THE ARTICLE! This report post dates the "official conclusion" you linked to in Wikipedia, which is NOT an authoritative source. Everything in the press about malware IS NOT A CONSPIRACY TO ATTACK YOUR BELOVED MICROSOFT! For Pete's sake, give it a rest.
“A series of events resulted in this accident”
Exactly, so why do you always focus on the microsoft component as being the root cause?
The pilot is responsible for everything that happens to the airplane. The pilot and co-pilot were negligent as were the maintenance crews and the airline.
Thats why they are trying to shift blame off to some other source.
You can't sue "malware".
Exactly. An effective maintenance program should include regular maintenance of the tools they use. Clearly, that wasn't done, and THAT is a management issue.
“You can’t sue “malware”. “
Or a dead pilot.
Microsoft is not the only OS which allows PDFs, JPG, or web payloads to execute code without user approval.
At least according to company announcements.
The accident investigation reports are usually very well done. Its amazing these things come out of a government agency.
I bash the decision to use a COTS operating system for a critical system where failure can cause fatalities. Too many think they can use Windows for everything, which is of course what Microsoft pushes. Sorry, Windows should NOT be used in some circumstances. Neither should other off-the-shelf systems.
Hold your temper, Sword...
Then you'd be pleased to know that the maintenance records program is not considered a critical system, and that even if the ground crew had properly used the maintenance records program (the computer operated, by the way, it was just slow - they were too impatient to wait) it would NOT have affected or stopped this tragedy.
This is pure, unadulterated FUD on the part of the anti-Microsoft legion around FR, taking some twisted pleasure in the death of 154 people. Sick.
My first 6 years of engineering life, I spent half my time designing and building the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, for Sundstrand Data Control. Those black boxes you look for after people die (I’m proud to say I was on the team that created the very first solid state recording units of both types).
Also was the company technical resource on a few investigations and saw first hand how the FAA/CAA operate. They are extremely thorough and accurate, as when there is a crash, usually hundreds die, and if it’s an aircraft problem, there could be tens of thousands more lives at stake.
Trying to make tech-head points over which OS was running a non-essential software reporting tool (a tool which still operated, by the way) is extremely grisly and in VERY poor taste.
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