IOActive researcher Ruben Santamarta has uncovered a number of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in widely deployed Radiation Monitoring Devices (RDMs), and has presented his research at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.
RDMs are used to monitor the radiation found in critical infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants, seaports, borders, and even hospitals.
According to the researcher, if the vulnerabilities identified are exploited, an attacker could wreak havoc on these critical systems used for monitoring radiation levels, such as falsifying measurement readings to simulate a radiation leak, tricking authorities to give incorrect evacuation directions, or increasing the time an attack against a nuclear facility or an attack involving a radioactive material remains undetected by sending normal readings to deceive operators.
