Tag Archives: Atom

[WTF] Did Stuxnet Sabotage Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?

Newspapers are full of speculations and details about this unique piece of software code, that obviously is a work by a government.Stuxnet used 4-zero-day exploits to infect computer networks running with Microsoft Windows. It was compatible to Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The Register writes:

(..) the Stuxnet worm was programmed to probe the hosts it infected for extremely specific settings. Unless it identified the hardware fingerprint it was looking for in industrial software systems made by Siemens, it remained largely dormant.

Experts say the quality of code is very sophisticated, there are nearly no side effects. It is estimated that the costs of the development of a virus of that quality goes into the millions of dollars. It also shows a very detailed knowledge of the attacked facilities.

There are some indications that Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz were the target of that virus.

The downside is we suspect this is the beginning of large scale cyber attacks. I don’t think that western Nulear Facilities are safe from such attacks. Let’s all hope the best. This virus is simply a nightmare.

Links

Update

A short overview on the articles published show, that almost all of them cite german security specialists Frank Rieger (member of Chaos Computer Club) or Ralph Langner (Founder of Langner.com).

[MacOS] 10.6.2 Update Released – Intel Atoms Killed

Apple’s 10.6.2 update closes lots of security holes that could be used to compromise systems. Safari, iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, and some other apps are rumored to be working more reliable after updating.

Apple pwns back

For OSX86 users on netbooks this update is far away from being recommended at the moment. The update now has proved what has been rumored some days ago: Intel Atom support has definitely been removed from the kernel.

Thus rendering Intel Atom based netbooks non working. Netbooks will not boot after updating as the following video by Stellarola shows. It shows the typical behaviour if the CPU is not supported by the kernel, OS X will instantly reset the system.

» Stellarola: Official – Atom not supported in 10.6.2
» Apple: About the 10.6.2. update
» Apple: Support Downloads for 10.6

[MacOS] Intel Atom CPUs still Unsupported in 10.6.2 beta

In contrast to what is being written on the major internet newspapers, the latest beta build 10C535 of Mac OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.2 does indeed still not support Intel Atom CPUs anymore.

Stellarola investigated into this issue some of his spare time to find out why different sources tell different things. And the reason is simple: if you run an early built 10.6.2 with an old kernel from july then 10.6.2 will indeed work, but the latest stock kernel in 10.6.2 build 10C535 as of now is not going to allow Atom CPUs to run.

According to Stellarola even in the 10.6.2. build 10C540 the Atom support is not gonna come back.

» Stellarola: Atom CPU – Sir, your pants are on fire