Radiation safety

HACKER WARNS RADIOACTIVITY SENSORS CAN BE SPOOFED OR DISABLED

THE NOTION OF a hacker-induced nuclear meltdown is the stuff of cyberpunk nightmares. And, let's be clear, there's no sign digital saboteurs are anywhere close to unleashing a nuclear apocalypse. But one hacker who has prodded at radioactive hazard protections for years says he's found serious vulnerabilities in those safety systems. These aren't bugs that would cause a radioactive disaster–but they could make it harder to prevent them.

At the Black Hat security conference Wednesday, security researcher Ruben Santamarta laid out a series of potentially hackable security flaws in the software and hardware systems designed to protect against radioactive contamination in two distinct forms.