nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.at
Nov 10, 2026, 8:37 AM@jwildeboer simple to write, much harder to actually do in practice
Replies
Nov 10, 2026, 8:38 AM@dequbed I work with customers who not only plan emergency procedures, they actually test them in practice at random times. It's called "being responsible" :)
- nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.atNov 10, 2026, 8:42 AM
@jwildeboer True, but do those emergency procedures include a sudden hundred-fold multiplication of workload within strict and very short deadlines?
- Nov 10, 2026, 8:46 AM
@dequbed How about an airport having to deal with a sudden and complete outage of one of their datacenters? At a random time? This is a real scenario that they test at least twice a year. By going through that, they have identified bottlenecks and unexpected problems that they fixed. Experience beats theory, is their mantra.
- nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.atNov 10, 2026, 8:49 AM
@jwildeboer I don't think that's comparable. For one, airports mostly deal in heavily redundant systems (backup radars for example) which can run in parallel (which a fridge obviously can't) and secondly airports have the option of diverting and grounding all flights. You can not stop food distribution.
- nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.atNov 10, 2026, 8:51 AM
@jwildeboer I don't disagree that having a plan here is important. But I think it's a bit presumptive to just go "take measurements by hand". That's replacing a highly efficient and entirely automated system with a completely manual one taking a *lot* of time. Even if noting measurements were instant, you have to go to every fridge, in a full warehouse of them. Just moving the human around will take a significant amount of time.
- Nov 10, 2026, 8:59 AM
@dequbed It's the final boss of an emergency plan. The stage you hope to never reach. But if all else fails, you need to have such a plan. Of course it is far better to have mitigation plans that work without such catastrophic disruptions. Maybe we will see more of that after all of this. That's my hope.
- nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.atNov 10, 2026, 9:02 AM
@jwildeboer honestly, in this situation I would seriously consider the emergency plan of "disconnect fridges from the internet, eat the fine for not being able to provide temperature tracking and tell people to thoroughly cook their food" instead.
Nov 10, 2026, 9:02 AM@dequbed @jwildeboer A simple firewall in front of the network - something any router shipped in the last decades - would have blocked random script kiddies from doing this.
I'm not one for victim blaming. But for this to be actually exploitable, one had to embody the dictionary definition of "gross negligence".
- nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.atNov 10, 2026, 9:08 AM
@larsmb @jwildeboer Its easy to say that from the outside, yes. I'm not saying the different food distributors and hospitals aren't at fault here, but consider: If it truly where as simple and trivial as you're saying it would have been done. There were real-world reasons beyond just greed and gross negligence at play here, and I feel like you're ignoring those reasons.
- Nov 10, 2026, 9:12 AM
@dequbed I look at the results, not at the theory. Fridges are still being attacked and manipulated, weeks after the first stories hit the public. The responsibility to act on these risks lies at the companies that operate them. I can only observe how they mitigate those risks. I am not responsible or involved. But I can use this to share possible approaches. Nothing more. @larsmb
- nadjadequbed@mastodon.chaosfield.atNov 10, 2026, 9:15 AM
@jwildeboer @larsmb I fully agree with you here. There is a responsibility here that isn't being fulfilled and it's a critical one at that. I'm just noting that the particular emergency plan you brought up does ignore the practical reality of the situation as well.