Cyber attacks on the USA (catch all)

[Ron Humphrey]

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.

[AdamG]

Conspiracy theories emerge after internet cables cut
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...?section=world

Is information warfare to blame for the damage to underwater internet cables that has interrupted internet service to millions of people in India and Egypt, or is it just a series of accidents?

When two cables in the Mediterranean were severed last week, it was put down to a mishap with a stray anchor.

Now a third cable has been cut, this time near Dubai. That, along with new evidence that ships' anchors are not to blame, has sparked theories about more sinister forces that could be at work.

Where's Cthulhu?

[selil]

There are a lot of cables out there on the bottom of the ocean. The process of laying sea cables is fairly labor intensive.

[AdamG]

You guys will love this:
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1067.htm