Unsafe at Any Feed

Anderson's rule proves true...

The story of the Frances Scott Key bridge collapsing after being hit by a cargo container ship gets more interesting. It seems that the story of the ship losing power is not so simple.

From a recent report, the power was going on and off, possibly interrupted by the crew, in order to compensate for the loss of control steering systems that may have been hacked into:

• 0:00 — POWER ON. Ship’s heading is off-course from the pylon.

• 0:04 — POWER OFF.

• 0:13 — POWER ON. The instant power is restored, the ship makes a very sharp turn hard to starboard, putting it on a collision course with the pylon.

• 0:24 — POWER OFF.

• 0:29 — POWER ON. The ship continues its starboard turn.

• 0:40 — POWER ON. With the power still on, it straightens its bearing, putting it on a direct collision course with the pylon.

• 0:43 — POWER ON. One final, small course adjustment, this time to port. It does not — and cannot — avoid collision. But it does make it a little less direct, thereby potentially saving some lives in the pilot house.

• 0:48 — POWER ON. The Dali makes contact (again, with the power still on).

This raises the more general issue of the security of safety systems in vehicles, transportation systems, and infrastructure of all types that are connected to computer networks and the internet.

Interestingly enough, two days after the bridge “accident”, one of the world’s leading experts on the subject of computer security and safety systems, Dr. Ross Anderson, passed away in his sleep.

“Anderson always campaigned for computer security to be studied in a wider social context. Many of his writings emphasised the human, social, and political dimension of security” according to Wikipedia. It’s inconceivable that he would not have thought deeply about the bridge accident two days before, assuming he was aware of it, which seems likely.

“For years Anderson argued that by their nature large databases will never be free of abuse by breaches of security. He said that if a large system is designed for ease of access it becomes insecure; if made watertight it becomes impossible to use. This is sometimes known as Anderson's Rule.^”

There is no bigger database than the internet, of documents, data, and *things*, for the application of Anderson’s rule. For a massive container ship to be connected to an internet feed seems like asking for trouble.

Another strange thing: I can’t seem to find Anderson’s entry in Wikipedia’s chronology of obituaries anymore since it disappeared from there.