Researcher Finds 23 SCADA Security Flaws in One Morning

This is the reason I bang on about security for embedded systems, particularly for the Internet of Things:

Researcher Aaron Portnoy found a remote code execution bug and a denial-of-service (DoS) flaw in Rockwell Automation SCADA products; three remote execution flaws and one DoS bug in Schneider Electric products; a DoS flaw in Indusoft SCADA products; eight DoS flaws in Realflex SCADA products; and three remote code execution bugs, two DoS, and three file vulnerabilities in Eaton products, a total of 23 from a simple scan. And if he can do it, so can hackers.

It also didn't take long - the first exploitable zero day bug took a mere 7 minutes to discover from the time the software was installed. For someone who has spent a lot of time auditing software used in the enterprise and consumer space, SCADA was absurdly simple in comparison he said.

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Ten... technology FAILS • The Register

Ten... technology FAILS from The Register:

Nokia's N-Gage, Palm's Foleo, Motorola's Atrix, Apple's Newton MessagePad, HD DVD, Sony's Rolly, Sony's Mylo, Philips' CD-i, Commodore's CD-TV, IBM's PCJr, the Camputer's Lynx, Gizmondo, the Phantom, Atari's Jaguar, MySpace, Beenz - behind every iPad there are dozens and dozens of technology products that aspired to greatness but were successful only in their distinct lack of commercial success.

Some were simply beaten by better rivals, others were just released too early or too late, still more were just plain wrong. Not all were specific products - entire categories of goods and services have been hailed as the Next Big Thing only to disappear with nothing but a handful of miserable early adopters to show they were ever there.

Here, then, are some of our favourite tech fails - products, technologies, concepts and trends - from the past 30-odd years.

Great piece from the Register - how many do you remember? (Sadly, all of them for me!)