Software supplier Symantec accidentally warned customers
of an internet meltdown last week.
A false warning issued from Symantec's DeepSight warned that a
devastating attack was under way. The message, which went out at
8.40pm Eastern time, stated "DeepSight Increased ThreatCon from 1
to 4 Alert".
The mark is decided by Symantec based on the patterns of
attacks, though in this case it was probably more down to the
control room officer being "double-dared" to push the red
button.
Symantec has never issued a genuine ThreatCon 4 alert and has
only rarely gone to ThreatCon 3 when, no doubt, it felt users were
not updating their anti-virus packages regularly enough.
Downtime wonders what would constitute a ThreatCon 4 type
situation. Giant rodents gnawing on network cables? The internet
becoming sentient and launching an attack on mankind like in
"Terminator 3"?
If you can think of a more appropriate situation where the
circumstances warrant a ThreatCon 4 rating, let us know.