Killer virus saudi arabia

In , crack squads of virus detectives zeroed in on the source of a deadly new virus — and where the killer might be headed next — with unprecedented speed. Rap sheet: No known priors; the virus is new to humans, who have no acquired immunity to it. Bats: Using a sophisticated sequencing and analysis technique, researchers in late August found the first exact genetic match for MERS-CoV in an Egyptian tomb bat near the home of the first human victim.

Camels: Following a lead that some early MERS victims were in contact with camels, researchers tested 50 of the animals from nearby Oman: All had antibodies showing previous exposure to MERS, according to another study published in August. Camels, widely used in the region for milk, meat, transport and racing, may be an intermediary host for the virus between bats and humans. For comparison, its relative, SARS-CoV, killed less than 10 percent of people infected during a global outbreak.

Wily adversary: In September, a genome sequencing study of MERS-CoV revealed that the virus did not follow mathematically predicted patterns of transmission; it likely has transmission routes other than sick individuals, such as asymptomatic humans or an as-yet-unknown domestic animal host. Health officials in Saudi Arabia say they are doing all they can to avoid an outbreak of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Mers coronavirus at the annual Hajj pilgrimage next month.

Out in the humid golden desert on the outskirts of Jeddah we witness a loving scene. A large, strong, beautiful camel is stroked and kissed by one of its herders, Abdel Salam Youssof. These impressive animals are the source of millions of dollars' worth of trade, as well as entertainment, food, drink - and status in Saudi Arabia. But they are also believed to be a source of one of the world's newest killer viruses, known as Mers.

In camels Mers mainly causes a mild cold. In humans it can be deadly. The virus has killed people in Saudi Arabia since it first emerged in More than people have been infected. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness in breath. It can also cause pneumonia and kidney failure. Most already had an underlying medical problem. It is unclear exactly how it passes from camels to people.

Scientists say it is probably via secretions from the nose and mouth of infected animals. Raw camel milk could also carry the virus. The WHO says anyone working closely with camels should wear protective gear like masks and gloves.

It also says people should avoid drinking raw camel milk. We didn't see anyone at the market following that advice. That address was registered to the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics in Moscow, a government-owned organization with divisions that focus on critical infrastructure and industrial safety. Gutmanis, meanwhile, is keen to help companies learn important lessons from his experience at the Saudi plant. In a presentation at the S4X19 industrial security conference in January, he outlined a number of them.

They included the fact that the victim of the Triton attack had ignored multiple antivirus alarms triggered by the malware, and that it had failed to spot some unusual traffic across its networks. Other experts note that Triton shows government hackers are now willing to go after even relatively obscure and hard-to-crack targets in industrial facilities.

Safety instrumented systems are highly tailored to safeguard different kinds of processes, so crafting malware to control them involves a great deal of time and painstaking effort. That hackers went to such great lengths to develop Triton has been a wake-up call for Schneider and other makers of safety instrumented systems—companies like Emerson in the US and Yokogawa in Japan.

Schneider has drawn praise for publicly sharing details of how the hackers targeted its Triconex model at the Saudi plant, including highlighting the zero-day bug that has since been patched. But during his January presentation, Gutmanis criticized the firm for failing to communicate enough with investigators in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Schneider responded by saying it had cooperated fully with the company whose plant was targeted, as well as with the US Department of Homeland Security and other agencies involved in investigating Triton.

It has hired more people since the event to help it respond to future incidents, and has also beefed up the security of the firmware and protocols used in its devices. These include things like software applications that are rarely used and older protocols that govern machine-to-machine communication. Over the past decade or so, companies have been adding internet connectivity and sensors to all kinds of industrial equipment.

The data captured is being used for everything from predictive maintenance—which means using machine-learning models to better anticipate when equipment needs servicing—to fine-tuning production processes. But the risks are also clear: the more connected equipment there is, the more targets hackers have to aim at. Other layers are intended to prevent hackers who do get in from accessing plant networks and then industrial control systems.

These defenses also include things like antivirus tools to spot malware and, increasingly, artificial-intelligence software that tries to spot anomalous behavior inside IT systems. Then, as the ultimate backstop, there are the safety instrumented systems and physical fail-safes.

The most critical systems typically have multiple physical backups to guard against the failure of any one element. The strategy has proved robust. But the rise of nation-state hackers with the time, money, and motivation to target critical infrastructure, as well as the increasing use of internet-connected systems, means the past may well not be a reliable guide to the future.

Businesses may chafe at the costs of doing that, but Triton is a reminder that the risks are increasing. QuEra Computing, launched by physicists at Harvard and MIT, is trying a different quantum approach to tackle impossibly hard computational tasks.

In Afghanistan, tech entrepreneurship was once promoted as an element of peace-building. Now, young coders wonder whether to stay or go. Volunteer-run projects like Log4J keep the internet running. The result is unsustainable burnout, and a national security risk when they go wrong.

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