Posted on 01/19/2008 8:29:48 AM PST by STARWISE
Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks on utility systems and extortion demands.
Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. 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.
*snip*
He confirmed SANS' report of the talk. "There were apparently a couple of incidents where extortionists cut off power to several cities using some sort of attack on the power grid, and it does not appear to be a physical attack," he said.
Hacking the power grid made front-page headlines in September when CNN aired a video showing an Idaho National Laboratory demonstration of a software attack on the computer system used to control a power generator. In the demonstration, the smoking generator was rendered inoperable.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Sounds like he’s implying Canada.
Sounds like someone watched, Bruce Willis’, Live Free or Die. Great movie, btw.
It’s Dr Evil!
In other words, doing SQUAT!
If politicians (both national and at state level) had brain cells instead of goat turds, they would already have fortified our power grid.
Thank God I have redundant power back ups!
The Goobermint mandated centralized command-and-control utilities model collapses under the weight of it's own internal corruption.
People will be forced to relearn the habits of self-reliant self sufficiency.
Best regards,
____________________________________________
WHEN? What do you think happened August 14th, 2003?
Knock of the conspiracy stuff. I’m sure it was just a bird or something innocent like that that caused the failure in NYC.
This is not new:
Local sites potential targets for cyberterror
Attackers could use computers to disrupt various utilities
Monday, September 2, 2002
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/85214_cyberthreat02.shtml?searchpagefrom=4&searchdiff=571
From nuclear plants to gas pipelines to electric utilities, Western Washington contains several “critical infrastructure” facilities that terrorists might target — through their computers.
Two recent incidents have heightened concern about cyberterror attacks, and have raised new questions about the capabilities of al-Qaida and other terror groups.
Late last year, FBI agents in San Francisco discovered that sophisticated hackers, working from the Middle East, had intruded into sites detailing Bay Area emergency telephone service, electrical generation and transmission, and the operations of nuclear power plants.
And last month, federal officials said they detected a series of small electronic attacks against U.S. Internet providers, including some in Seattle. The initial government alert cited Italian authorities who warned that “wide-scale hacker attacks” were planned against U.S. sites.
0It was a tree limb, just ask _Jim.
Awesome movie.
This is serious though, we cannot lose electric infrastructure here on a regular basis. Very good way to bring down the economy very quickly.
Goody...more stuff to stress over :-\
I still haven’t seen it. Doesn’t Barry Watson play a bad guy in that movie? Another good reason for me to watch it this weekend
LOL....I have the same fantasy as you....that some day, all the power goes off, and people have to use their brains and brawn to SURVIVE.
Since the globalists in California have regulated energy production to the global power grid,instead of self sufficiency here, this should be easy enough.
I take that back - it’s Timothy Olyphant - they look very much alike
FIRE SALE! Yes, it was a very good movie! The Apple guy held his own against Bruce Willis quite well.
Martial Law comes to mind.
You should see it. Action packed. The crash scene in the tunnel and Willis bringing down the helicopter with a car is awesome.
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