Posted on 12/31/2016 6:49:41 AM PST by Skepolitic
Press Release
12.30.16 Leahy Reaction On Russian Hacking Of A Vermont Electric Utility
Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy On Russian Hacking
Friday, December 30, 2016
State-sponsored Russian hacking is a serious threat, and the attempts to penetrate the electric grid through a Vermont utility are the latest example. My staff and I were briefed by Vermont State Police Colonel Matthew Brimingham this evening. This is beyond hackers having electronic joy rides – this is now about trying to access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down in the middle of winter. That is a direct threat to Vermont and we do not take it lightly.
Here's the real story: The Burlington Electric Department ran a virus scan on their computers. In the process, they "detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to our organization’s grid systems."
I'd wager that the laptop was controlled by either a guy who visited some of the seamier parts of the Internet or an idiot like Podesta. In other words, a typical virus infection that could easily be prevented. As reported by Burlington Electric, it was easily detected and remedied.
By the way, Burlington Electric Department is the pissant, municipally-owned electric utility of Burlington, Vermont. Its miniscule generating capacity is about 50 MW, split evenly between a single wood-fired generator and a gas-turbine generator plus a tiny hydro generator and a dash of solar and wind capacity.
If the Russians are targeting the US utility system, and their only success is an unconnected laptop of some Internet-surfing city employee of the Electric Department of Burlington, Vermont, they really aren't much of a threat.
Note to progressives: Paranoia will destroy ya.
Well put...which is why they’re using it as a false flag operation.
Libs are insane...totally.
Well put...which is why they’re using it as a false flag operation.
Libs are insane...totally.
Wood powered power generation!
Now that is cool...
Thank you for the timely reminder.
Russia “hacks” unconnected laptop - maple syrup industry hit hardest due to what coulda been a loss of power for processing operations...Aunt Jemima calls it a racist act of terror.
What’s happened to the state of Vermont has my Green Mountain Boys ancestors spinning.
Honest honey. The Russians hacked my computer and signed me up for a Grinder account. And I have an anonymous source that tells me they’re the ones that left the toilet seat up!
Horse crap. This is about a grandstanding Democrat politician trying to make hay out of malware of Russian origin on a computer that DOES NOT CONTROL THE GRID. This is a baldfaced lie, and they know it.
What’s Russian for “Kilroy”? as in “Kilroy was here”. Liberals are seeing Russians behind every tree and under every bed. Vlad Putin is living rent free in so many liberals’ heads, he is like Santa Claus. I hope the libs leave out cookies for Vlad, along with a glass of milk.
I guess Homer won’t download any more Russian babes on the company puter from now on.
lehey?
i want the reaction from bernie
Do not doubt that Russia has and can penetrate critical infrastructure in the US. Hell, even Iran has done so, and there are multiple media stories on what China has done.
Also, do no doubt that the US was the first to weaponize cyber intrusion. No, that is not trying to establish a moral equivalence. I’s just a fact.
We shut down Saddams air defense network in advance of the first Gulf War and some of that disablement bled over into the civil networks. We developed and injected Stuxtnet to screw up Iranian centrifuges.
And then we established Nitro Zeus:
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/nitro-zeus-was-a-massive-cyber-attack-plan-aimed-at-ira-1759707654
Both Russia and China have been targets for well over a decade.
Snowden proved we were extracting info from closed networks around the world.
The rest of the world is playing catch up WITH US and are trying to establish a credible deterrent.
And, laughably, we get all pissy about it.
More fake news: Russian just hacked the treatment plant of a small, former coal-mining town nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains of WA State. (src)
Basically it comes down to that the D party cult is peddling survivalist hysteria. Lunatic Leahy should tell all his cultists they need a year’s worth of freeze dried food (just after he invests of course)
“””Note to progressives: Paranoia will destroy ya. “
No you don’t understand, it’s the drip, drip,drip from the media faucet, Hillary would be President Hillary if it wern’t for those dirty Russians!? A hack on any cpu from Timbuctoo to Calamazoo is major stuff.
U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News.
But don't screw with our maple syrup production.
Accusations piled upon accusations with no public evidence. The Democrat Plan is obviously to bury the public imagination in BS.
This level of hysteria is simply amazing, coming as it does from "Leaky" Leahy.
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