'60 Minutes' BIOS Plot May Be NSA Invention

[Bill USA]

http://news.yahoo.com/60-minutes-bios-plot-may-214330769.html

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And then there was this scoop: The NSA stopped a "catastrophic" Chinese scheme, called the "BIOS plot," to "destroy every computer in the world."

"Think about the impact of that across the entire globe," NSA Director of the Information Assurance Directorate Debora A. Plunkett told CBS reporter John Miller. "It could literally take down the U.S. economy."

That was news to many security experts, who had never before heard of the "BIOS plot," even though "60 Minutes" asserted that "computer manufacturers" had worked with the NSA "to close this vulnerability." Such an undertaking would have been well known in the information-security community.

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Security experts aren't buying it.

"There is probably some real event behind this, but it's hard to tell, because we don't have any details," wrote Robert Graham, CEO of Atlanta penetration-testing firm Errata Security, on his blog last night. "It's completely false in the message it is trying to convey. What comes out is gibberish, as any technical person can confirm."
(more)

[itsrobert]

1. actually the computer manufactures

uses this vulnerability to make people buy new computers every few years

[billhicks76]

4. Is There Anything NSA Won't Lie About?

As kids realize what they really are they will just be creating more hippies.

[TrogL]

2. I do computer security (among other things) for a living

Never heard of it.

[Lint Head]

3. Computer Security Corporations make up virus threats all the time just to generate profits.

Who would know? Most computer code is protected and secret. How would anyone know its phony. A totally innocuous virus could be spread just to cause a panic.

[jsr]

5. Nursing home viewers of '60 Minutes' were mightily impressed