Computer crashes were different: STM
The STM says Saturday’s metro outage was a cascading series of computer failures while the outage on July 20, during the afternoon rush hour on a Wednesday – also blamed casually on “computers” at the time – was a router problem.
It would be nice if they’d tell us more, because they’re leaving me wondering if someone is poking at the STM computers.
(“It looks like you’re trying to route a metro train. Would you like help?”)
Ian 10:10 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
I wonder if it’s related to the system-wide failures of 2 weeks ago.
Charles 10:16 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
I wonder if this is related to the Stuxnet / Flame virus. I imagine the metro is not run on regular computer systems, more like industrial controllers or something. I couldn’t find information on the system, even from those many detailed blogs dedicated to the metro. Apparently, even the location of the control center is kept secret: “Le Centre de contrôle du métro (anciennement le centre Providence) se trouve dans un lieu gardé secret au centre-ville. De cet endroit, chaque train est contrôlé et le système entier est surveillé. Pour des raisons de sécurité, il n’est pas ouvert au public.” from http://www.metrodemontreal.com/.
Kate 10:49 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
Ian, they said it wasn’t the same cause. Could mean anything.
Charles, what little I know may well be out of date. The last situation I knew of was that at least part of the control stuff is very old. They’ve been cobbling together an ad-hoc interface between current systems and stuff dating back to the 1960s. This La Presse story from a year ago implies that the process of upgrading the control systems was getting pretty chaotic, and the advent of new trains may be making it even more complicated.
The last I heard, the metro runs on QNX, a Unix-based embedded-system OS made in Canada. Obviously it must be designed to be resistant to viruses, but then Stuxnet was written specifically to drill into just such embedded systems. (Frankly, if I were among the Anonymous I’d take the opportunity to hint around that my organization had something to do with it, even if it didn’t. I’m 99% sure the STM is capable of having a few computer failures without outside help.)
Various people have told me the metro control system is on Berri above Ontario (on the east side) or that it’s at Crémazie or that it’s buried somewhere around Duvernay and Vinet in Little Burgundy. Certainly it would make the most structural sense to have it near the main hub at Berri, but maybe there are secondary fallback control systems elsewhere, which could’ve given rise to the panoply of responses you get when the subject comes up.
willie granger 10:52 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
Terrible writing in that Gazette article. I thought it was in French the way it began.
Stefan 13:47 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
in most cases these failures are just caused by human error (programming or operating the system), nothing such dramatic as viruses …
Kate 15:38 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
I love the quote in the Journal’s version of the story, from a Polytechnique prof: “Les systèmes informatiques qui plantent, ça arrive partout.”
TransportJames 20:48 on 2012/07/08 Permalink
I know where the new control center is and I have been there and got a tour of the place. But I’m not telling you where it is…
Tux 08:07 on 2012/07/09 Permalink
Hacking the metro’s control systems… an interesting exercise. Would necessarily involve getting physical access to a computer on the network or somehow sneaking malicious software into an employee’s laptop or portable device… I doubt any of the systems are internet facing. Definitely a social engineering challenge. If I were an activist hacker, the advertising network would be a much more interesting target.
Montreal STM network crashes | Network | Security | Information | News 12:48 on 2012/07/23 Permalink
[...] Sources via MontrealGazette, MontrealCityWeblog [...]