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Schneier on SecurityA blog covering security and security technology. « Crossing Borders with Laptops and PDAs | Main | Friday Squid Blogging: Tentacle Arm » May 16, 2008Terrorists Attacking via Air ConditionersFrom the DHS and the FBI, a great movie-plot threat: It is possible to introduce chemical or biological agents directly into external air-intakes or internal air-circulation systems. Unless the building has carbon filters (or the equivalent), volatile chemical agents would not be stopped and would enter the building untenanted. I'm sure glad my government is working on this stuff. Posted on May 16, 2008 at 12:03 PM • 70 Comments To receive these entries once a month by e-mail, sign up for the Crypto-Gram Newsletter. Brandioch Conner • May 16, 2008 12:22 PM Asbestos! Seriously, why would any terrorist need to get radioactive material to cause health problems? When you have access to the HVAC, just dump a bunch of asbestos or other carcinogenic material in the vents. Ah, because asbestos isn't as scary and "biological agents!" or "chemical weapons!" or "radiation!!!". I think someone has managed to weaponize stupidity. Alpha Prime • May 16, 2008 12:33 PM No need to weaponize stupidity... it's endemic in the population. And its even contagious in large groups or committees. ;-) Dan Linder • May 16, 2008 12:34 PM This was the basis for a plot of "Criminal Minds"within the past 12 months, the title was "Lessons Learned." (FYI, Criminal Minds is a TV show here in the US on CBS: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/criminal_minds/) Great, I guess this means that the DHS is now into its re-run season too... :-( Dan bendotron5000 • May 16, 2008 12:40 PM I'm pretty sure that this occurs in at least one movie already. If not, it would make a great scene for a stoner comedy. "Dude, meet me by the air conditioner intake behind the school, I got some crazy stuff"
Nomen Publicus • May 16, 2008 12:49 PM Not even original movie plotting. It is trivially easy to invent a plot that could possibly work at some point, somewhere. For example, how much do you trust the quality of the water in the cooler? Is it ever independently tested before being made available. Would you notice a needle hole in the seal? Has the FBI etc thought of that one? Bhima • May 16, 2008 1:20 PM Man, if some TLA in the US wins the stupid movie-plot threat contest next year, I'm going to be really upset. How one man compete against that power of institutionalized stupidity of this magnitude? Anonymous • May 16, 2008 1:22 PM How soon they forget -- anyone remember the original outbreaks of Legionaire's desease??? or a Tom Clancey novel called Executive Orders? jk • May 16, 2008 1:29 PM They started on a plan like this for the HBO (or was it Cinemax?) series called "Sleeper Cell". The leader of the cell used it as a test for his crew, but they stopped and did not go through with it. Jilara • May 16, 2008 1:29 PM Hey, even better, we could detonate an *ATOMIC BOMB* inside a hurricane heading for the Gulf Coast or Florida, and have its winds spread radiation all over! Oh, wait, Edward Teller already proposed that as a means of weather control for hurricanes. Daniel Pawtowski • May 16, 2008 1:31 PM Used to have smell issues in high school; the vents for the chemisty lab hoods were right next to the rooftop AC units. shoobe01 • May 16, 2008 1:35 PM Or we could continue to let the smoking lounge be immediately outside the back door, where the air intake vents seem to invariably, inexplicably be located. That works well. hdh • May 16, 2008 1:41 PM Another Clancy novel, Rainbow Six, had a virus spread via the cooling system of an Olympic stadium which sprays on the audience during breaks and at entrances. Lindsey • May 16, 2008 1:47 PM Not related to AC Air-Intakes precisely, but lets not forget taking control of a building's climate control system and adjusting it to one extreme or the other so that everyone evacuates the buidling and further catastrophic mayhem can ensue when they are all gathered outside. It's a two step process. vwm • May 16, 2008 1:48 PM add Eric Van Lustbader: "The Bourne Legacy" to the list of books that cover this threat (in a most boring way, don't read it!). Don't they know the Movie Plot Contest is over? And couldn't they write this carbon filters advertisement in 150 words? Sorry, but wasn't this the plot used in Moscow against terrorists a few years ago? Of course, they couldn't wait for the ventilation system to distribute the gas of fear that the terrorists might release their bombs... TB • May 16, 2008 2:10 PM "Other scenarios involve the use of helicopters equipped with agricultural spraying ... " Isn't that what Pussy Galore did for Auric Goldfinger int hat James Bond movie? L.O.U.C. • May 16, 2008 2:40 PM "I'm sure glad my government is working on this stuff." Hey, you're the one who wrote "But I want government to do more." How shocking that once you've clamored for action, action is taken in a way you hadn't intended, as a consequence. What was that law called again? Hmm..... Anonymous • May 16, 2008 2:42 PM Hm, they must not have been paying attention in 1938 when Kimball Kinnison released thionite into the airstream of Helmuth's base, killing all the zwilniks within. Nothing is new, we just pay government analysts to reinvent past fiction. Anonymous • May 16, 2008 3:00 PM The REAL movie plot approach -- and much more effectve in my humble opinion -- is to not actually release anything into a ventilation system (or water source or whatever), but to merely create the illusion or suspicion that something was done or is about to be done. Less effort and just as much panic.... Lev • May 16, 2008 3:31 PM As funny as this plot is, the broader issue (getting stuff into inlet ventilation) is valid. I distinctly remember poorly designed ventilation system in my college in Moscow: the outlets of the chemical exhaust hoods were located on the roof right next to the inlets of the main ventilation air intake. Mind you, this was a chemistry college and it had a lot of hoods. So when someone in the Organic Chemistry lab on the fourth floor spilled a large load of mercaptanes in one of the hoods, the stuff went up the hood and then down the inlet... For those of you who are not from chemical tribe, mercaptanes (or thiols) are organic compounds similar to alcohols, but with -SH group instead of -OH. They smell like sh*t (literally). To be precize, sh*t smells like mercaptanes, because they really are the primary component of fecal odor. So the stench was so bad that the whole building had to be evacuated for a day. Talk about sh*t hitting the fan ;-). Skorj • May 16, 2008 3:38 PM I disagree that this is a bogus threat, depending on who the audience for the warning was. If I'm hardening (literally) a building against threats from armed attackers, the HVAC intakes are a genuine threat surface, and one that's darn hard to do anything about. The seriousness of this threat in armed combat was proven in the island tunnel fighting in the Pacific theater in WWII. Of course, if I'm concerned with the security of the building I work in, well it has these big glass windows, and an attack on the HVAC intakes would be a remarkably silly way to use an airplane as a weapon. Although even here, *accidental* introduction of (mildly) toxic chemicals to HVAC intakes happens frequently enough that you want to think about it when building - I've seen large buildings evacuated due to very silly mishaps because the HVAC intakes were at ground level, as the example above illustrates. Eddie • May 16, 2008 3:40 PM I think Mother Nature came up with this plot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Eddie bear • May 16, 2008 3:46 PM Who has been in Vegas and experienced the mist used to cool people down on the sidewalks and patios? Wonder how many people would be affected by an attack there? Shivering Timbers • May 16, 2008 3:46 PM You all feel so smug with your sarcasm now, but you're going to look like fools when someone uses a helicopter to dump nerve gas into the HVAC intakes in the Sears Tower! bear • May 16, 2008 3:49 PM then again, what about that ant outbreak in Texas? Something about them getting into electronics, airconditioners, etc... making things grind to a halt. One article said the standard pesticides were not strong enough. Maybe this is another attack! run away, run away!!! Beta • May 16, 2008 4:00 PM "The REAL movie plot approach -- and much more effective in my humble opinion -- is to not actually release anything into a ventilation system (or water source or whatever), but to merely create the illusion or suspicion that something was done or is about to be done. Less effort and just as much panic...." Neuromancer, by William Gibson, 1984. The Panther Moderns convince the occupants of a large office building they've been slipped a truly horrific bioagent, and simultaneously inform the police that they've gassed the building with a narcotic that turns people into murderous maniacs. The crowd rushes the doors in a screaming panic, only to meet the trigger-happy riot squads. This actually happened at my old school some 15 years ago. Someone poured a can of fermented herring ( http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/... ) in the air condition intake. Apparantly, there was no carbon filter in place. And no classes were cancelled. rediguana • May 16, 2008 4:15 PM Nothing to see here, we did exercises based on those sort of scenarios in 2002. Definitely not something new, and don't forget to add crop-dusters to the list. Rick Auricchio • May 16, 2008 4:36 PM @ bendotron5000 This has already been done with hemp smoke in a recent episode of The Simpsons. Obviously, DHS watches TV for ideas... Bram • May 16, 2008 5:15 PM Invent a plot? Are you kidding me? This happens every time an EMS crew leaves their ambulance running at the ambulance entrance of my hospital's ER. The air intakes are right above the ambulance parking and ORs get a huge dose of diesel exhaust when a truck is left running. Doug Coulter • May 16, 2008 6:55 PM I'd heard from a fellow chemist that what makes feces smell as they do was a compound called scatol, which I once looked up in Merck. Also a sulfur compound. Mecaptans are what is used to make natural gas and other odorless fuels stink, it's bad, true, but a different smell entirely. Here in Blacksburg VA an unnamed individual thought it would be a good idea to pour a whole quart down a toilet in the chem labs, which caused the entire town to be evacuated for a couple of days while everyone looked for the major gas leak which of course was never found...but the whole town stank for weeks. As this was in the '60s, it wasn't the front page world news item it would be today. Just a prank, though hardly a harmless one. In recent science news, some grad students did a genetic mod to E. Coli to make it make wintergreen instead of scatol. I thought that might be pretty dangerous, actually, as that's an alcohol, and E Coli is easy to transfer among humans where it naturally lives...And it's hard to kill, and doing so has other nasty side effects -- you need this stuff in your gut. Nick Lancaster • May 16, 2008 7:48 PM Carbon filters will work until the terrorists exploit the installation/maintenance of said HVAC and introduce bogus filters. To demonstrate osmosis, a high school teacher placed several drops of butyric acid on a piece of paper and tossed it in the garbage can by the classroom door. By the end of class, the room was filled with a vomit-like odor ... Nick Lancaster • May 16, 2008 7:51 PM But seriously, this makes me glad that Poison Ivy is locked up safely in Arkham Asylum ...
asdasd • May 17, 2008 12:45 AM this which I will say is only a representation of the truth that is within children, and somewhere within us all. and the truth is beyond these words, and the falsified meaning they have in the world
"what we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and the reproduction of our race ... so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. ... peoples that bastardize themselves, or let themselves be bastardized, sin against the will of eternal providence."
so put this everywhere you can, translate it, write it on walls, shout it, vandalize. we need to break down the walls of this false reality which isn't ourselves, spit on this world, it's all shit everything around us is shit compared to our number one priority, children, the true humanity, otherwise everything turns to shit Fake51 • May 17, 2008 3:39 AM I like how some people argue that this is actually a real threat. True, it is. In the same way that terrorists stealing a nuclear warhead in one of the former soviet states, then ships it to the states, then turns it into a dirty-bomb and blasts Manhattan is a real threat. The major point is: if you're a terrorist and want to create some terror, choosing to go for the airvents of any given building is stupid - there are much easier and much more effective ways to get what you want. Mark • May 17, 2008 5:02 AM @Brandioch Conner When you have access to the HVAC, just dump a bunch of asbestos or other carcinogenic material in the vents. Cigarette smoke is probably the easiest carcinogenic substance for anyone to get hold of. The exhaust of a badly tuned vehicle is also likely to be effective at making people ill. As with plenty of other terrorist possibilities the issue is not that things are technically difficult so much as there don't appear to be that many people prepared to do them.
Carbon14 • May 17, 2008 9:40 AM The Exxon Valdez has already dirty bombed the alaskan coast. it happens all the time. when its a chemical company, its not terrorism, its OK I guess. Bophal, en4rab • May 17, 2008 12:24 PM Ok I cant resist drumming up some fear with an imaginary terrorist attack, and mine is way better than the rubbish the DHS have managed fretting about airconditioners. What about evil terrorists attacking the us with biological agent Ug99? Anonymous • May 17, 2008 2:46 PM @Doug Coulter So if I understand correctly, poop and sewage would smell minty fresh? That is too freakin' weird. FNORD • May 17, 2008 4:01 PM As other have noted, this sort of thing can be an important concern, if not because of terrorism. I got safety training for working at an office building near a chemical plant. One of the things to do, in the event of a toxic release, was shut off the climate control system. Tangerine Blue • May 18, 2008 9:06 AM Folks, the problem with "movie plots" is not that they are infeasible or unlikely. The problem is anybody can imagine a thousand ways to attack us, and it's not feasible to post a DHS agent at the A/C intakes of every large building, or an Air Marshal on every cropduster. The better use of our resources is to devote resources to traditional police and intelligence work, and to be prepared for the occasional disaster, whether natural or man-made. Hole • May 18, 2008 10:03 AM I have an idea. Some terorist babe hooker can stick some deadly powder in her holes. Every guy that she bangs would get some on his wang. Every girl these guys hump would get some in they holes. Sort of like a pass it on thing. Youve no doubt herd about that theery that you slept with every ho that the person you hump has banged. Expponential growth dude. This powder should take long time to work so first hooker babe can last long time (you now what i meen). carbon14 • May 18, 2008 10:07 AM Tangerine Blue is right, there will be attacks and disasters, many like the 911 and hurricane Katrina, will be forseen, Tarkeel • May 19, 2008 2:06 AM @carbon14: "it dosent cost more to extract the oil just because the price rises, thats, just bush cronies in the oil business charging more for it." That's called supply and demand, and is a central part of this thing called Capitalism. Jeremy Duffy • May 19, 2008 8:14 AM So... we're mocking them from taking this so seriously? Because it seems to me that this is a real threat. I mean, if you were to ask me if putting carbon filters in the ventilation system would increase the security of a building, wouldn't the answer be yes? Anonymous_007 • May 19, 2008 8:28 AM See "Besides the projectile danger, the burning refrigerant could turn into phosgene gas, or another of several types of deadly gases that could cause harm to ..." AKA WW1's mustard gas ... a small hole in the refrigerant's piping next to a burning torch = big problems. Much easier attack, 'silent but deadly'. Just my .02 dot tilde dot • May 19, 2008 9:10 AM @tb: i'm not sure if the usual suspects of international terrorism have, uhm, pussy galore... at least not in this world. scnr. .~. paul • May 19, 2008 11:01 AM If you're going to fill a space with toxins, it should be the emergency stairs, which typically aren't connected to building ventilation and often aren't vented at all. I wonder what it would cost to HEPA-filter a large building's intakes. You'd have to replace the filters what, once a day? And what about the water... Davi Ottenheimer • May 19, 2008 12:42 PM i have always wondered why hvac systems have so few inputs. it certainly is not to improve the quality of air... Chaim • May 19, 2008 1:43 PM I think we need to destroy all Chuck Norris movies and tv episodes as they could obviously be used at terrorist training camps. Chuck is *our* weapon and we need to keep it that way. Skorj • May 19, 2008 4:41 PM Actually, your typical office building manager should certainly have a defense plan against this sort of attack, for the simple reaosn that it happens accidentally often enough. The defense plan would be "I'll turn off the HVAC and sound the fire alarm to evacuate the building, or at night Joe will do it, as he works nights". *Not* having such a plan would be irresponsible indeed, but that's about the extent of it, unless your talking about a military base or similar target. Gremlin • May 19, 2008 7:50 PM So, I do Industrial HVAC for a living. You wouldn't believe what we have to do to protect buildings from the chemical processes in a big plant. Millions of dollars. And that whole turn stuff off when something bad happens? It's harder than you think. Turn your home furnace off at the thermostat sometime and see how long it takes to stop. Now do the same test by running to the breaker box and stopping it that way. Now, with H2S (a common industrial chemical), you get five seconds at 100ppm. Think you'll make it? Now do the same thing with a 1000lb fan wheel and all it's inertia. Real security is hard. Scriven King • May 19, 2008 8:41 PM Guys, I hate to burst any bubbles, but here's a question. Wasn't crashing an airplane into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center a bit like a movie plot? Mr. Schneier, while I agree with a few of your articles, I do believe you sometimes forget government has a responsibility to provide security for its citizenry against all plausible threats. Plausible being those attacks which could happen regardless of their likelihood of success. sameold • May 20, 2008 1:15 AM Erik, I believe you are referring to the Moscow theater hostage crisis: "It is thought that the security services pumped an aerosol anaesthetic—later conjectured to be weaponized Fentanyl—into the theatre through the air conditioning system. After thirty minutes, when the gas had taken effect, a physical assault on the building commenced. The combined forces entered through numerous building openings, including the roof and through the sewers." Anonymous • May 20, 2008 2:56 AM Adding to the "plot already converted into movie"-thread I would like to add the 10 years old entry "Opera Ball" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129277/ . Summary: Some neonazis poisoining the guests of Vienna Opera Ball with hydrogen cyanide. Skorj • May 20, 2008 2:55 PM @Scriven King "Wasn't crashing an airplane into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center a bit like a movie plot?" No, no, that was a *book* plot. Do try to keep up. :) Mark • May 20, 2008 5:52 PM Not related to AC Air-Intakes precisely, but lets not forget taking control of a building's climate control system and adjusting it to one extreme or the other so that everyone evacuates the buidling and further catastrophic mayhem can ensue when they are all gathered outside. Pete • May 22, 2008 7:09 AM "Other scenarios involve the use of helicopters equipped with agricultural spraying equipment" Or just a bloke with a ladder? The helicopter seems a bit unnecessary. bob • May 22, 2008 7:23 AM @Skorj, @Scriven King: Either way - it is not repeatable so its not worth spending much money to prevent. The next time, they will probably buy an old airliner from Mojave for peanuts and crash that into a building without having to hijack anything (which makes me wonder if any laws would even be broken in the process? FAA regs against flying to close to habitation sure, probably noise abatement too; but is there an actual law against intentionally flying an airliner that you own into a building?) They can probably even sell cheap tickets to pay for the gas, amortize the bird and enrich the body count (and therefore the news impact - the primary mission of a terrorist. Its the news media that terrorists are actually trying to reach, so their "message" can be leveraged. After all they are going to have to be very terror-inducing to get the attention of Americans jaded by 9/11) freakwent • June 15, 2008 5:36 PM @Tarkeel: That's called supply and demand, and is a central part of this thing called Capitalism. T.Rob • June 16, 2008 10:14 AM I lived this one. They opened up a restaurant in the office building I worked in and vented the range hood out to the street - just below the air intake for the building. The restaurant was a noodle place with a large griddle-fry station for the veggies and meat. The resulting smoke was dark yellow with an acrid burnt soy sauce smell and it clung to your clothes when you left the building. There were days when you came back from lunch and the floor (4 floors above the restaurant) was visibly hazy like a bar or lounge. One day I was on a conference call and it got really bad inside. I remember thinking that I'd leave as soon as the call was over and then I remember the paramedic standing over me. Several lessons can be learned from this: This particular movie-plot threat makes good leverage for a work-at-home program. If you don't have any qualms about leveraging sanctioned stupidity for personal gain, anyway. The down side is that my trip to the ER was probably cited by security folks in my town or company as credible evidence for this movie-plot threat. Mike R • June 16, 2008 6:29 PM @en4rab, about the mold attack: Here's another way to do it. Sell the gummint on the idea of making gasoline out of corn. It's a damned inefficient way to make fuel so it won't make a dent in the gas supply, but it will wreak havoc on the food supply and hence the economy. Oh wait, it's been done already? Donho • June 17, 2008 12:25 PM A company I worked for got a contract from the feds to find the cheapest, easiest way to destroy a large building. Result? 100lbs of flour in the HVAC and an M80 (firecracker) in the front door. Derick • August 13, 2008 2:31 PM Really, the government should just invest this money in Jedi training. These guys (or gals) wouldn't bat an eye at some of these threats and the taxpayers would certainly get a lot more bang for their buck!
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