RSA security attack demo deep-fries Apple Mac components
RSA security attack demo deep-fries Apple Mac components
Network World - San Francisco -- How bad can cyberattacks get? How about burning the internal components of a machine, whether PC or Mac, to a crisp so there's no thought of it being recoverable? That's what security vendor CrowdStrike showed could be done to an Apple Mac OS X today at the RSA Conference.
We can actually set the machine on fire, said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer at CrowdStrike, who joined with the security firms CEO George Kurtz to show exactly how this kind of attack can be carried out on an Apple OS X computer. Alperovitch added the demo done at the Moscone Center would be controlled to raise the temperature level of the targeted Mac to permanently damage the electronics, not ignite it, since this after all was a public venue at the Moscone Center where fires would not be countenanced.
The cyberattack demonstration frying the machine was done by targeting the machines APC embedded controller through a fake firmware update devised by CrowdStrike that spiked the CPU and turned off the fans.
The point, said Alperovitch, is this is a type of cyberattack that enterprises really can expect to see happen in the future, an attack that is not recoverable in terms of data or the machine itself.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/022614-rsa-apple-attack-279212.html