I wonder if this is what happened when NYC lost their power? I always found that story about the tree falling a bit unbelievable.
August 2003 - NYC Blackout
The whole of the city was dark and the setting sun painted one building.
CIA Says Hackers Have Cut Power Grid
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.
Unless a focused wetworks effort is made, these sorts of extortions will only escalate as they succeed. And it makes no difference in what country these attacks originate, the wetwork must be carried out mercilously.
“Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks on utility systems and extortion demands.”
You could say that the greenies demands and the O administration moves as a different for of extortion. I removes $$$ from our wallets with no return value.
Trial balloon from the fine folks who brought you the cartoon of TWA-800 gaining altitude after it disintegrated? If so, when the power goes out, the media and the brain numbed will gleefully eat the story that [insert favorite terrorist group here] did it over the internet. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...