On Jan. 23rd, 2012, the Daily Yomirui reported on a computer infection that affected industrial control systems in Japanese vehicle and chemical plants. Again, industrial control systems (ICS) are the computer systems that control the physical machinery of factories, utilities, etc. If you can take control of an ICS through cyberattack, you can potentially cause physical destruction within those factories and utilities.
According to the article, 10 ICS managing production lines were infected by computer viruses last March. Those viruses forced the shut-down of several production lines. In fact, the article notes that a virus took control of an ICS at a Japanese petrochemical plant.
These viruses infected the ICS through USB memory sticks.
You can find the Daily Yomiuri source article here.
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