Posted on 01/18/2008 11:42:50 PM PST by Sammy67
Saturday, January 19, 2008 International computer hackers threatening to hold cities ransom January 18, 2008
CIA says hackers pulled plug on overseas power grid
Overseas attacks recently declassified, but some details obscure
By Robert McMillan
(IDG News Service) -- Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week.
Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong.
Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.
"We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands," he said in a statement posted to the Web on Friday by the conference's organizers, the SANS Institute. "In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."
"According to Mr. Donahue, the CIA actively and thoroughly considered the benefits and risks of making this information public, and came down on the side of disclosure," SANS said in the statement.
One conference attendee said the disclosure came as news to many of the government and industry security professionals in attendance. "It appeared that there were a lot of people who didn't know this already," said the attendee, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with the press...
-- Source/continues at: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do? command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9057999
(Excerpt) Read more at emergency.com ...
Your link isn’t working.
Arrest the scum and send em to waterboarding land...Gitmo.
Terrorists.
Come on, man! Give me a link that works. Is this some kind of sick joke! Do you know what China is doing to the WWW right this instant? If not, see the following link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1956036/posts
sounds like a job for NetForce to me- someone get Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik on the line. The open borders are very out of control- both physical and cyber.
CIA says hackers pulled plug on power grid
Saudis? China? N. Korea? Russia? Launched cyber attacks from where? WTF is going on?
the level of hacking that we have got going on is un-acceptable
the value that is inherent in the internet and the related computers is too great to abandon to a worthless bunch of irresponsible geeks who use our distress as their amusement
we will need a general change in the thinking about programming specifically that all programming will have to be properly approved and authorized using a system of Public Key signatures
i do not like even the thought of government involvement in any of our business but if that is what is required to straighten up some of our software providers, then bring it on
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