In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that software was, indeed, patentable, but only in the context of some mechanical entity, whether it be a steel plant, a computersystem or even (unbelievably) a CD-ROM disc.
In January 2003 the Microsoft SQL Server worm, known as Slammer, infected a private computer network at David-Besse nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio, disabling a safety monitoring system for nearly five hours, says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.