Spectre And Meltdown Hit Industrial Systems

SCADA systems might seem like a relic but they remain critical to the operation of core infrastructure. Patches that remedy the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities are causing systems from some SCADA vendors to struggle.

With the patches already causing issues in other systems, their hit, reported by Wonderware, says the updates cause system instability.

Rockwell automation has made similar comments.

Rockwell Automation, a big ICS and SCADA vendor, say MS Meltdown patch causes issues with Studio 5000, FactoryTalk View SE, and RSLinx Classic (big in manufacturing sector) – in fairness may be RPC change related https://t.co/WklZD87EJh

— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) January 12, 2018

While many other vulnerabilities are reported each year, when something hits a system at such a fundamental level, the knock-on effects can be far wider reaching than many can imagine. This is a great example of the metaphorical butterfly’s wings flapping and causing a hurricane across the world.

Have you seen significant impact caused by Spectre and Meltdown? Are you a developer whose software has been affected? What impacts are you seeing in your world?