Could cyber flaw take down nuclear power plants?

A \"back door\" into Siemens could wreak havoc on nuclear power plants and oil and gas pipelines globally, according to a research firm\'s report.

A “back door” into Siemens could wreak havoc on nuclear power plants and oil and gas pipelines globally, according to research firm NSS Labs which discovered the weakness and reported it to Siemens earlier this year.

As Reuters reports, a back door is an undocumented access point that someone can remotely break into using widely available tel-net software and a six character password. That password is the same on all Siemens systems and cannot be changed. The company is working with NSS Labs to plug security flaws.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.

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