Computers are key to their communications and also in their methods of attack. I never knew these were attributed to control system breaches:
1) control tower shutdown the Worcester (Mass.) Regional Airport
2) Slammer-related disruption of the safety monitoring system at FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio
3) Sasser worm in spring 2004 took out several oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico for two days
4) SoBig affected the dispatching and signaling systems of CSX Transportation, halting train service for four to six hours along the Northeast corridor
More chilling yet: "A malicious hacker or terrorist group could conceivably take down parts of the power grid, throwing the country into darkness; they could take out emergency telephone systems or disable the floodgates to a dam. Even scarier to terrorism experts is a digital intrusion combined with a physical attack; think 9/11, but magnify the chaos by adding an electronic knockout of regional or national communication and power systems." (see post 3109)
If these incidents are identified as being attributed to security breaches, just think about all of the unusual computer related glitches that we've been hearing about recently that are not identified.
I believe that a multi-pronged attack will include computer security breaches. It's a lot less dangerous to the attacker than other methods discussed. Why blow yourself up when you can push some buttons and live?
BUMP