Posted on 03/11/2005 5:42:11 AM PST by EBH
By Justin Blum, Washington Post Staff Writer
Fri, Mar 11, 2005
Hundreds of times a day, hackers try to slip past cyber-security into the computer network of Constellation Energy Group Inc., a Baltimore power company with customers around the country.
"We have no discernable way of knowing who is trying to hit our system," said John R. Collins, chief risk officer for Constellation, which operates Baltimore Gas and Electric. "We just know it's being hit."
Hackers have caused no serious damage to systems that feed the nation's power grid, but their untiring efforts have heightened concerns that electric companies have failed to adequately fortify defenses against a potential catastrophic strike. The fear: In a worst-case scenario, terrorists or others could engineer an attack that sets off a widespread blackout and damages power plants, prolonging an outage.
Patrick H. Wood III, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (news - web sites), warned top electric company officials in a private meeting in January that they need to focus more heavily on cyber-security. Wood also has raised the issue at several public appearances. Officials will not say whether new intelligence points to a potential terrorist strike, but Wood stepped up his campaign after officials at the Energy Department's Idaho National Laboratory showed him how a skilled hacker could cause serious problems.
Wood declined to comment on specifics of what he saw. But an official at the lab, Ken Watts, said the simulation showed how someone could hack into a utility's Internet-based business management system, then into a system that controls utility operations. Once inside, lab workers simulated cutting off the supply of oil to a turbine generating electricity and destroying the equipment.
Describing his reaction to the demonstration, Wood said: "I wished I'd had a diaper on."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nah....just a tree limb in Bugtussle, Iowa, hitting against a powerline. Nothing to worr.........[disconnected]
Good. Now maybe people will stop thinking of hackers as being "cute", and start really stepping on them. Hard.
There are many low tech ways to do as much. I will not discus them.
Naw...I am in the area that had the grid go down...not fun when ya only have a quarter tank of gas and the gas pumps don't run, the hotels can't take your credit card, and the ATM won't give ya money...
twernt funny....and lesson learned
Anybody Interested in hacking in relation to the power grid should read the book Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism by Dan Verton. He outlines scenarios where this happens, and the consequences of our lack of preparation as a country for said consequences.
Maybe a dumb question, but what can't key facilities such as power plants be taken off the internet and be operated by INTRAnet? Wouldn't this put an easy halt to hackers. If there is no link between the hackers and the installations, there is no conduit for them to access the installations.
ping
ping
Thanks for sharing.
Too late. Your comment has inferred enough, and now I know exactly how to do it.
The only problem is, how to get ahold of 1 semi truck full of radishes, where to get all that silver lipstick, and how to keep the monkeys calm.
Not a dumb question at all. At least any systems that tie into power transmission should be off.
They are operated by intranet inbetween installations, within certain companies, for instance. But they all share information between regions and other power companies via the regular web. Thats where the problem lies. Once you can crack the web access, its only a matter of time before the intranet also would fall to your grasp. In his book Venton outlines a scenario where Al-Qaeda enlists the help of former members of the Russian FSB(our American NSA) to train, and also help carry out, the attacks. very interesting stuff.
Was it last year or prior year that the entire country of Georgia had a blackout? If I remember correctly it was close to the time the Ohio grid went out. Did they ever locate the problem source of either incident?
BS!
If these people were serious about protecting their infrastructure they would eliminate all outside connections to their vital systems.
If, for some reason, they cannot do this they should have competent forensic teams monitoring their systems 24x7 who could then launch immediate investigations at the first hint of an attempted hack.
They may not track it back to the individual but they can surely track it back to a specific location if they are diligent and serious enough.
It all comes down to priorities.
they said the ohio thing that overloaded into the new york region was caused by a lightning strike, which overloaded a transformer monitored by an old out of date computer, thereby causing the outage.
Have you hacked into my computer? You forgot the key element, Red Wigglers, (The Cadillac of Worms)!
I've actually seen a semi full of radishes. this was at the Radish Festival in Oaxaca (burp).
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