A new type of attack has been theoretically identified, dubbed a Permanent Denial of Service (PDOS). By taking advantage of remote firmware updates, an attacker could theoretically kill hardware using a tampered BIOS flash file.  If the hardware is set to automatically update it’s firmware, which is the default setting in most cases, your server could be taken down until the hardware is replaced.  You can get more info by following the link at Slashdot.
“A new type of denial-of-service attack, called permanent denial-of-service (PDOS), damages a system so badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware. A researcher has discovered how to abuse firmware update mechanisms with what he calls ‘phlashing’ — a type of remote PDOS attack.”

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk