In Brief

Researcher: Power Grid Hackers Probably Attacked Typical PC Flaws

Plenty of PCs have been compromised in different industries, critical or not, says Roger Thompson

By Gregg Keizer

"[The general antivirus industry] never ever get to see the best zero days," Thompson continued. Although the community is well-known for sharing samples, there are always cases in which a victimized organization -- a government agency, for example -- refuses to share the attack code with others for analysis. "You'll ask for a sample, and he'll say, 'Well ... no, I'm not allowed'," said Thompson.

Although information about Conficker, the 2008 worm that infected millions of PCs in 2009, was shared in the security community, Thompson cited it as the kind of malware that poses a threat to any Windows machine, no matter whether it's in a home or running on the network of a major power company. "Conficker, for example, was primarily a business problem, not a consumer problem, because it spread so easily across network shares," he said.

But there is a silver lining to the Journal report, Thompson argued. "I doubt that the problem is that serious," he said. "Because the worst hack is the one you don't discover. But even if it's exaggerated, it behooves us all to be careful and thoughtful about our critical devices."

© 2009 Computerworld Inc.

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