The Minuteman Missile Misadventure

Last Saturday, the U.S. Air Force suffered what John Noonan, a former missile launch officer, called "a significant breach". For several minutes, the 319th Missile Squadron lost normal communications with 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at F.E. Warren Air Force Base (AFB) in Wyoming.

Built by Boeing and fitted with W62, W78 or W87 warheads, these LGM-30 Minuteman III ICBMs represent one-ninth of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Other Minuteman III missiles are stored in silos at Malmstrom AFB in Montana and Minot AFB in North Dakota.

Launch Facility Down

According to The Atlantic, which first reported the story, the squadron of 50 Minutemen entered "Launch Facility Down" (LF Down) status when at least one launch control center computer (LCC) failed. Missiles in LF Down status cannot be controlled by on-site missileers; however, they can still be launched from an airborne command center.

According to Air Force spokesperson Christy Nolta, this "temporary interruption" in local communications lasted less than an hour and "the missiles themselves were always protected by multiple, redundant, safety, security and command and control features".

Changing Blame

Originally, The Atlantic reported that the communications breakdown at F.E. Warren AFB was caused by a "power failure". Later, however, military officials blamed faulty hardware, an explanation that was repeated across many media channels without much specificity.

According to a "senior military official" who was interviewed by The Atlantic, "the cause of the failure remains unknown, although it is suspected to be a breach of underground cables beneath the base". These cables are reportedly "next to impossible to hack", and the Pentagon does not believe that the incident at F.E. Warren AFB was caused by "malicious actors" such as terrorists.

Nuclear Negligence vs. Computer Malware

Predictably, most media reports have considered last weekend's incident within the context of nuclear negligence, noting how Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the Secretary of the Air Force in 2008 after a B-52 flew across the continental U.S. with "hot" nuclear weapons. Absent from these reports, however, is any serious mention of Stuxnet, a computer worm that has been described as "the world's first cyber guided missile". This malware is designed to attack specific configurations of Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA system software, and has reportedly infected the computers of at least 15 Siemens customers – including a nuclear reactor in Iran.

Cyberwarriors and Skeptics

Maybe Minuteman missiles don't use SCADA systems - or even any Siemens products at all. And maybe Stuxnet is overhyped by self-serving journalists, as Rob Rosenberger of Vmyths claims. But do you wonder if you're getting the whole story from the Pentagon, which now has its own Cyber Command led by a four-star general? Or do you agree with Ryan Singel, a writer for Wired who roundly dismissed Cyberwar: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It. That book, written by Richard Clarke, a former counterterrorism advisor to two Presidents, should be filed "under fiction", Singel asserts.

What do you think?

Resources:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/power-failure-shuts-down-sqaudron-of-icbms/65207/

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdw/jdw101027_1_n.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-30_Minuteman

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Sophisticated-Stuxnet-Worm-Uses-4-Microsoft-Zeroday-Bugs-629672/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/27/stuxnet_analysis/

http://vmyths.com/2010/09/27/sans/

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/cyberwar-richard-clarke/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126097038

http://www.us-cert.gov/control_systems/pdf/ICSA-10-201-01C%20-%20USB%20Malware%20Targeting%20Siemens%20Control%20Software%20-%20Update%20C.pdf

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/siemens-scada/