Hackers to blame for power outages?
This is unsettling, to say the least:
Hackers literally turned out the lights in multiple cities after breaking into electrical utilities and demanding extortion payments before disrupting the power, a senior CIA analyst told utility engineers at a trade conference.
All the break-ins occurred outside the United States, said senior CIA analyst Tom Donahue. The U.S. government believes some of the hackers had inside knowledge to cause the outages. Donahue did not specify what countries were affected, when the outages occurred or how long the outages lasted. He said they happened in “several regions outside the United States.”
“In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities,” Donahue said in a statement. “We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet.”
The homeland security implications are obvious.
The Bush administration is increasingly worried about the little-understood risks from hackers to the specialized electronic equipment that operates power, water and chemical plants.
In a test last year, the Homeland Security Department produced a video showing commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that an enormous generator shudders as it flies apart and belches black-and-white smoke.
The recorded demonstration, called the “Aurora Generator Test,” was conducted in March by government researchers investigating a dangerous vulnerability in computers at U.S. utility companies known as supervisory control and data acquisition systems. The programming flaw was fixed, and equipment makers urged utilities to take protective measures.
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Is it just me, or is anyone else baffled by the thought that things such as the ability to control electrical utilities networked such that they can be accessed over the internet by a smart and ambitious hacker? Why do we even risk giving them access in the first place?
For decades before the internet, utilities functioned just fine without being coupled to networks and without having the ability to be controlled thereover. It just seems to me to be exceptionally stupid to create such an access point, especially in this day and age.
Who’d have thought that “Live Free or Die Hard” was not just fiction?
(shakes head)
“Donahue did not specify what countries were affected,” Well we know it wasn’t North Korea as they don’t have lights to turn off. (sorry, couldn’t resist).
On a serious note, I remember somebody asking Newt Gingrich about a “magnetic bomb? or something like that which could knock out all our power. Does anybody know about that?
If electric utilities can use Global Warming as an excuse to take control of our thermostats, why can’t Green Peace terrorists use the same excuse to take control of the electric utilities?
I’m assuming, (Actually hoping and praying), that the Seabrook “nuculer” station has had it’s control computers upgraded.
The last I heard, (and this was almost 10 years ago), they station had 4 Windows NT 4 servers monitoring things, and at least two of them crashed every day.
God help us if they also connected those things to the internet.
This little “experiment” was tried on the USS Yorktown 10 years ago:
http://lists.essential.org/1998/am-info/msg03829.html
Any knowlegable code writing hacker will find flaw’s in a system and attack it. The hacker world is full of anarchist, they know that there are flaw’s in code system’s world wide they tend to attack the most vulnerable system’s first and don’t think they are’nt trying to find security code hole’s in our’s DOD incription is available to U.S. citezen’s and is against the law to export. It is said it would take 7 year’s to decrypt and break that code, what else do these people have but time, do you think Alqeda can get a hold of this encryption it will fit easily on a DVD and the code can be easily accessed and security hole’s found. I’m suprised that we have’nt had these problem’s in the State’s, truly suprised, they try daily to hack DOD system’s and have even breached them all be it was not a high security area but they have been hacked into, it is just a matter of time before a serious and possibly catastrophic hacking event occur’s in the U.S.
Wasn’t this scenario in one of the Die hard Movies? Where the bad guys turned off the lights to the city?
Recently I read that the Feds would not approve a new aircraft (the dream-liner, did I read it here?) because the passenger amenities could be hacked & the operational systems could be compromised… why is the infrastructure accessible over the Internet anyway?
John Ansell, the “magnetic bomb” would be a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere giving off an electromagnetic “pulse” that would fry any unprotected circuits over a HUGE area…
Sounds like something out of Live Free or Die Hard.
I seem to recall during tha Reagan and Bush 1 administrations,there was a lot of talk about the future of the computer and the plus and minus of networkng(remember the movie”War Games”).The technology existed,but no one was in a hurry to apply it because of potential problems.Bill Clinton knew (as did everyone else)that rushing into theis new tech.could give the economy a boost(that it didn’t need),and make him look good,so he and Gore pushed for it ,without regard to the risks .They aren’t called knee-jerk liberals for nothing.
Old news… for those of us in the industry.
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1782
Countrys are now financing hacker shops… to be used in assymetric warefare… nothing new… key is that none security business people were making decisions based on cost, not the threat of attack.
Thanks Brooklyn Red
John, the magnetic bomb you’re thinking of is called an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse). All nukes produce EMP’s but if they’re detonated high in the atmosphere they can cause a whole lot of problems. There’s also EMP weapons that are high-yield nukes that are designed to enhance the EMP that they give off when detonated. This has long been rumored to be a weapon that Iran would use on the U.S. to cripple the country and the economy.
Brooklyn red, it was the new dreamliner you heard about. It wasn’t over the internet, simply over the onboard network.
Yes I believe so. Does anybody remember Enemy Of The State, some probably watched it and said as my wife did, “that’s pretty far fetched is’nt it” my answer was “no, not at all” just look at the technology we have used in Afghanistan and Iraq we have even more powerful surveillence system’s than that, a satellite can take an readable image of a license plate so what other amazing things do you think our satellites can do. Hacker’s are quit profeicent in what they do and government’s hire these people to find out how to disrupt and destroy vunerable system’s this is a 24/7 problem for us and we had better wake up big brother is already here.
Brent, true that. My point is why have fences, walls & guards when you can get in through a phone-line… systems should be self contained.
Wasn’t this the plot of Die Hard 4?
Thanks for the information, Brent.
The ‘magnetic bomb’ is really an EMP bomb - sort of a ‘hush-s-bomb’ - zappo to all you e.toys - you will wish you had kept that ‘53 Chevy pickup cause your car/truck is kaput.
Your right some of these system’s should be self contained but the telephone, power and water system’s might have to spend a little money to do that they don’t pay for the net like you and me it all run’s thru the DOD and it has been left up to those great guy’s at DOD and DHS to protect us all from cyber attack. I’m confident are’nt you?
This might be a reference to the E-Bomb, which is distinct from the nuclear pulse bomb. Popular science did an article on it in 2001. There is a lot of material and comments, pro and con (i.e. that it would not work), to be found on the Internet (using our friend Mr. Google) regarding the thing. Again, the E-Bomb is not a nuclear device.
See this paper for a technical description:
http://jya.com/ebomb.htm
I know this is a serious issue, but if they cut the power here and it doesnt come on before my ice cream melts I’m really going to be ticked off.
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA)systems are what utility companies use to manage their systems. This ranges from the power generation side through distribution and has been high on DHS’ radar screen.
The idea that hackers could extort monies from other countries is not surprising. Here in the US, our thieving power industry in cahoots with the PUC milk their customer base like cows. The massive problem that shut down several states was due to a stupid software flaw.
Considering that there are still lots of proprietary technologies in-place that would prevent many of the systems from being breached, the bigger problem still remains: while they distract us with these kinds of threats they’re walking in and out of our front doors stealing us blind. It’s nothing but a diversion.
aj, me to don’t mess with my ice cream, my kid’s know this and so should these ba$!@d’s.
Blind_Mule,
The world is a risky place for sure, but we have hackers too.
And, I sleep soundly knowing that payback is a bitch. Yeah, someplace like Iran could do something stupid but not very likely… gotta love those Ohio boats.
Blind_Mule—
Thanks for your resonse to my question.
And grandolphxx—–an EMP would be a freaken nightmare!!!
ACLU protesting the government looking into foreign power grids and internet connection without a warrant in 5, 4, 3, …
I might be old-fashioned when it comes to this sort of thing, but shouldn’t such important parts of the energy infrastructure be offline?
Kinda reminds me of “Wargames”.
Knowing the threat exist helps with preparation. Let’s just hope the wheels are turning and countermeasures are in place.
This sounds a lot like the plot from “Live Free or Die Hard” from this past Summer. Creepy.
This is one of the consequences of using closed source software. The user really does not know what he/she is using. I have used dos/windows for over 12 years (from about 88-00) and was constantly at risk from various viri and malware. Since switching to Linux, at about 01 I never had so much as computer lock up and my primary server has been running without a reboot since moving to my present location last may.
Pathetic. Where’s the protection for computer systems? Surely, there are experts who could protect these things from hackers.
They use EMP weapons in the Matrix movies….
We do have people that protect these system’s, the problem is it’s like a war the enemy pokes at your defense’s until they find a hole and then attack it with full force, we plug the hole and they search for another, as long as there are anarchist hacker’s and countries paying them the war goes on.
It strikes me that the best prep for these Net terrorist acts is to prepare one’s own situation to survive these events should they come.
A dry food storage is good. Fill those empty juice bottles w/water & find a place to put them. Date & Rotate food. Toilet paper & buckets to catch rain water for flushing in worse case scenerios….remember, power runs just about everything! Aminal supplies should also be rotated.
Put yourself through the mental exercise of a ‘what if?’ situation. Candles, matches kept dry. Those NASA thermal tinfoil looking blankets for your elderly….stuff like this.
It is way past the point of this could happen…better to be @ least slightly prepared.
As for the lights out?!!!
‘Ye though I walk through the Valley of Darkness I shall fear no evil. Thy rod & thy staff are my guide.’ …..& He will be my Light.
didn’t mean to be so long winded…sorry.
Watch section 4 “The Power Grid”