Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated by Spies

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 8, 2009 | SIOBHAN GORMAN

[Snoopers-868th]

WASHINGTON -- Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

[little jeremiah]

Your comments are great, Liberty. I didn’t know that one voter machine company was owned by Chavez. I think I remember something about that but it’s just coming back to my mind.

I really think things are going to get very, very ugly. Very.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Never mind the fact that one particular voting machine company is OWNED BY VENEZUELA’S COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT/CHAVEZ! Talk about insanity!)

That's right! I remember that during the 2004 election. It's even more unbelievably blatant now.. Three words.. Senator Stewart Smalley. *shudders*

[LibertyRocks]

Thank you, LJ. I agree with you...

[americanophile]

The power grid is an Achilles heel; an outdated, piecemeal system with a huge target on it. I know someone who designs and manufactures high voltage transmission equipment, who plainly told me that with a half-dozen explosive devices an informed operative could take out at least half the country's grid with ease, and that it could take months to get it back online. Never mind the EMP Gingrich has been going on about...old fashioned C-4 or well-placed dynamite could send us back 200 years in an instant.

[lainie]

Not that I believe it. When do they allege this is to have taken place? How many years ago?

[MrPiper]

have invested in some 55 gallon drums for an emergency water supply.

As an experiment, I put a 55 gal plastic drum under the down spout on the house gutters. ONE short southern rain shower filled it up. Just FYI.

Just FYI. I built a diverter that would allow the first dozen gallons to bypass before it overflowed into the drum to allow dirt/debris to mainly bypass the drum. However, I have a creek 50 yds away, so I'm in good shape.

Next experiment, outhouse :-)

[D-fendr]

The problem isn't the internet; it's the numbnuts that use it for things that should never be connected to it.

The growing reliance of utilities on Internet-based communication has increased the vulnerability..

The internet is just a cheaper network. If they're gonna spend all those bucks, they can build their own closed and secure one.

[frankjr]

I use the creek behind my house as an outhouse.

- Your upstream neighbor

[1010RD]

Psyops against liberty. If only one person had control over _______ (fill in the blank) then the bad event wouldn't have happened. Barney Frank argues that every day.

[theDentist]

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system,

Really? And here I was thinking they'd leave such programs to improve the system's performance.

[1010RD]

This might make some sense if Obama GOVERNMENT would not just mess things up.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Last week, Senate Democrats introduced a proposal that would require all critical infrastructure companies
to meet new cybersecurity standards and grant the president emergency powers over control of the grid systems and other infrastructure.

Just last week...well, isn’t that convenient...
_________________________________________________

So...Zero’s gonna be like...”Who run Bartertown?” (Master Blaster) Greeeeeat.

[Hardastarboard]

Zero's mama really screwed her kid up.

I've said as much in several posts. A white woman in 1961 who took up with a black African man would have had to be a nut case, a complete and total nut case. Not being racist here, just a realist. Given that, the fact that his father abandoned him quite young, and his mother gave him to his grand parents to raise, and you have a profile of a miserable childhood. IMHO, Barack 0bama's mother was a vile, selfish loon who did great harm to her son.

[pnh102]

Also how many people have passwords to these systems on their laptop computers?

This only begs the question... why is such information on a laptop to begin with? Why aren't these laptops locked down so that users cannot install their own software? All of these things are possible to do but a lot of people refuse to do them.

[HiTech RedNeck]

‘Cause Windoze technology has surged several years past effective security technology for same. Even though Bill Gates brags that the stuff has been in there since he wrote the first byte of Windoze, it had to be controlled. It’s like a house with locks that, when installed per the accompanying instructions, let anybody in.

Linux and other UNIX work-alikes, along with true UNIX systems, have the advantage of effective security being designed in from the get-go.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Obama’s Mama was being rebellious, on purpose.

The grandparents did as best they could, and nobody reports that Barack was a misbehaved boy. His liberal angst came later, when he went to university (the Bill Ayers ghostwritten version reads it back into his secondary school youth).

[pnh102]

‘Cause Windoze technology has surged several years past effective security technology for same. Even though Bill Gates brags that the stuff has been in there since he wrote the first byte of Windoze, it had to be controlled. It’s like a house with locks that, when installed per the accompanying instructions, let anybody in.

This is a red herring. The fact is that it is possible to lock down a Windows installation so that it becomes far more difficult for security problems to occur. If an organization chooses not to do this, then that is its own fault.

[HiTech RedNeck]

POSSIBLE, of course.

Easy to neglect for the harried system administrator, equally true!

There are suites of third party administrative software now available that ease this task. This should never have had to be, had Bill Gates thought ahead.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

There is now a small group of Republican Congressmen who want to require that all activity on “internet communication services” (including your personal home wireless router even if password protected) be logged for two years.

Link?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Brain too dull, but check the likes of www.eff.org (internet liberals wailing about it).