Marussia F1 team hobbled by trojan horse virus

Filed under: Motorsports, Safety, Technology



When we think of Formula One, we think of the pinnacle technology - massive operations designed for the sole purpose of building very fast cars. We don't often think of security for all that technology, though. Neither, apparently, did the hapless Marussia F1 team, which lost an entire day of testing data this week due to a computer virus.

"It started off with the first disaster, which was a computer Trojan-type virus in the racks, which cost us the best part of the day," Marussia boss John Booth told Autosport. The winter testing session in Bahrain lasted four days, but for Marussia, it was a three-day affair, as an entire day was dedicated to annihilating the Trojan that had infiltrated the team's systems.

There's not a lot of detail on where the virus originated nor if any data was lost or compromised, but it's interesting that an organization as high-profile as a Formula 1 team (even a perennial backmarker like Marussia) would be targeted. Certainly, if we were the principal at any other team, we'd be looking at updating our security software.Marussia F1 team hobbled by trojan horse virus originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Feb 2014 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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