Cyber attacks on the USA (catch all)

[Backwards Observer]

Chinese hackers infiltrate Department of Homeland Security and FBI, pay off official mouthpieces:

No evidence of cyberattack at water pump, DHS says

Federal investigators have found no evidence that a cyberattack was behind a water pump failure this month in Illinois, the government announced Tuesday.

After a "detailed analysis," the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI "have found no evidence of a cyber intrusion," DHS spokesman Chris Ortman said.

Officials confirmed last week that they were looking into the possibility of a cyberattack at a public water district in Illinois, after a blog disclosed the possibility.

"There is no evidence to support claims made in initial reports -- which were based on raw, unconfirmed data and subsequently leaked to the media -- that any credentials were stolen, or that the vendor was involved in any malicious activity that led to a pump failure at the water plant," Ortman said Tuesday. " In addition, DHS and FBI have concluded that there was no malicious traffic from Russia or any foreign entities, as previously reported."

No evidence of cyberattack at water pump, DHS says - CNN - Nov 23, 2011.

[AdamG]

Within a week of the report’s release, DHS bluntly contradicted the memo, saying that it could find no evidence that a hack occurred. In truth, the water pump simply burned out, as pumps are wont to do, and a government-funded intelligence center incorrectly linked the failure to an internet connection from a Russian IP address months earlier.

Now, in an exclusive interview with Threat Level, the contractor behind that Russian IP address says a single phone call could have prevented the string of errors that led to the dramatic false alarm.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...ystery-solved/

[davidbfpo]

A classic, hence my emphasis and thanks for the link to The Wired article Adam G.

Asked if the fusion center is investigating how information that was uncorroborated and was based on false assumptions got into a distributed report, spokeswoman Bond said an investigation of that sort is the responsibility of DHS and the other agencies who compiled the report. The center’s focus, she said, was on how Weiss received a copy of the report that he should never have received.

“We’re very concerned about the leak of controlled information,” Bond said. “Our internal review is looking at how did this information get passed along, confidential or controlled information, get disseminated and put into the hands of users that are not approved to receive that information. That’s number one.”

So we have an industrial malfunction at a water plant that has nothing to do with cyber warfare, an intelligence assessment circulated widely and maybe beyond it's intended recipients - an assessment that is simply wrong and missed some basic research.

A classic on many levels.

[bourbon]

The initial wave of reports makes reference to the compromise of the remote access software vendor; the consequences of which, if true, would be far greater than a single isolated incident.

This follow up story makes no reference to the compromised software vendor.