Cyber attacks on the USA (catch all)
There has long been a discussion about the kinetic nature of cyber warfare. Today CNN brings us video of a largish hole in the power grid. Kinetic effect without the kinetic cost. I wonder what the cost of a laptop and Internet connection is in relationship to a 500lb bomb (or dozens).
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/26/pow...isk/index.html
Quote:
Sources: Staged cyber attack reveals vulnerability in power grid
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the federal government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned.
Department of Homeland Security video shows a generator spewing smoke after a staged experiment.
Sources familiar with the experiment said the same attack scenario could be used against huge generators that produce the country's electric power.
Some experts fear bigger, coordinated attacks could cause widespread damage to electric infrastructure that could take months to fix.
CNN has honored a request from the Department of Homeland Security not to divulge certain details about the experiment, dubbed "Aurora," and conducted in March at the Department of Energy's Idaho lab
In a previously classified video of the test CNN obtained, the generator shakes and smokes, and then stops.
A lot more at the link
Boeing 787 mayb be subject to hack attack
As a simple example of computer mediated conflict and terrorism having unlikely avenues of attack, or asymmetric methods to attack, advances in one technology can provide unexpected consequences in other ways. The quoted story (more at the link) gives an example how in providing service to passengers the flight control and safety systems were put in jeopardy. This is an error in architecture and likely was never considered at any point to be an issue until an outsider perceived the issue.
Unfortunately as technology is adapted and integrated into civilian society and military weapons and communications systems these unexpected consequences can be exploited. It's an interesting article and it appears they will be fixing the network architecture issues in this case. For the military professional or interested civilian look around your environment sometime and consider all of the interconnected technologies with an eye to how they could be used in unexpected ways.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wired Magazine (online)
Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks that could allow passengers to access the plane's control systems, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The computer network in the Dreamliner's passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane's control, navigation and communication systems, an FAA report reveals.
The revelation is causing concern in security circles because the physical connection of the networks makes the plane's control systems vulnerable to hackers. A more secure design would physically separate the two computer networks. Boeing said it's aware of the issue and has designed a solution it will test shortly.
"This is serious," said Mark Loveless, a network security analyst with Autonomic Networks, a company in stealth mode, who presented a conference talk last year on Hacking the Friendly Skies (PowerPoint). "This isn’t a desktop computer. It's controlling the systems that are keeping people from plunging to their deaths. So I hope they are really thinking about how to get this right."
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LINK.......
CIA official: North American power company systems hacked
There have been several versions of this story starting to escape. It does inform the small wars scholar about possible issues and force multipliers in reconstruction and stabilization operations.
Link
Quote:
Originally Posted by EarlyBird
Hackers have targeted computers that operate power companies worldwide, causing at least one widespread electricity outage, a Central Intelligence Agency senior analyst told North American government and public works representatives in New Orleans this week.
The SANS Institute, a nonprofit cybersecurity research organization in Bethesda, Md., planned to release a report late Friday quoting CIA senior analyst Tom Donohue, who spoke Jan. 16 to 300 government officials, engineers and security managers from electric, water, oil and gas, and other utility companies based in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Netherlands.
"We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands," Donohue said at the SCADA 2008 Control System Security Summit in New Orleans. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, and generally refers to the systems that control critical U.S. infrastructure.
"We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge," he said. "We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. 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."
LINK
I would tend to see it in that vein as well
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Presley Cannady
Yes, and a pre-teen hacked SCADA and unleashed a devastating volume of water from the Teddy Roosevelt Dam--or at least that's how the story goes on its third re-telling. Here we have a vague reference to an attack that occurred outside of the United States that involved a penetration via the Internet somehow and purportedly resulted in a power outage of unknown magnitude across several cities. About the only thing hard we can deduce from this "report" is that the power grid involved most certainly wasn't managed privately nor was the investigation (if there was one) a matter of public record. Put another way, this story could easily be about a bunch of technicians at a substation in say...Iraq...taking wrenches to terminals which they were fully authorized to use. In fact, I'm pretty sure something like this happened in Najaf recently.
Although the threat is real and the capabilities exist more often than not its just normal everyday screwing with stuff that happens. Anything more elegant tends to attract a lot more attention than most with that type of capability would want.
North Korea behind recent DDOS attacks?
Dark Reading just published a report on the recent DDOS attacks on US and South Korean systems.
Quote:
Supporters of North Korea may be behind a series of denial-of-service attacks that have crippled U.S. and South Korean government Websites during the past five days, a news report says.
source
