Remember when “someone” used the Stuxnet virus, or rather worm, in an Iranian nuclear plant several years ago to freeze Iranian nuclear production, leading to a major diplomatic scandal involving the spy agencies of both the US and Israel, as the world learned that in the present day industrial sabotage only needed a flash drive and a computer virus to render even the most sophisticated piece of industrial machinery obsolete? Well, moments ago, Bloomberg reported that a computer virus was discovered in a German nuclear power plant.
- A computer virus was discovered at the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant in Bavaria, German news service DPA reported.
- No danger to employees or populace
- Power plant noticed the virus in its Block B on Mon.
- RWE specialists to determine how malware entered computer system built in 2008
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BR (google translated) is reporting that the malware is thought to be brought in by a data carrier, and the affected portion of the system is the fueld assembly loading area.
The affected IT system is part of the fuel assembly loading machine of the power plant. This raises, for example, old fuel from the reactor core and transports it to the storage pool. An influence on the control of these loading machine has the IT system according to the operator but not. In the power plant all other safety-related IT systems have been checked without finding the meantime.
The competent authority and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) have been informed. The reconnaissance takes place with the assistance of IT specialists in the RWE Group. The malicious software may have been introduced by a data carrier.
Ironically, in the case of the Iran “infection”, one of the suspected parties was Germany’s own Siemens. It would be painfully ironic if the same someone had infected a Germany nuke at roughly the same time.
