Cyber-Attacks?

Galahad2 writes "The Washington Post has a lengthy article about the Bush administration's fears of an Al Qaeda cyber attack on the nation's infrastructure. Though we have all seen this sort of attack as a possiblity for a long time, I'm having a hard time believing that Al Qaeda is capable of anything along these lines." You're not the only one. The article does cite an example of the only known infrastructure attack, a case in Australia where a consultant used his inside knowledge of a local sewage treatment system to dump raw sewage, hoping for a contract to solve the problem he created.

Comments

Smart Move...

[Howzer]

This, and several other even less plausible recent "possible attack" stories look to me like a classic "cover your arse" move from the White House. The conversation in the "war-room" probably went something like this:

Flak 1: "Hey, we're really getting pasted over the fact that we "knew about" 9-11 and didn't warn anyone."
Solemn pause as the room thinks. Scratching of heads, etc.
Flak 2: "I know, let's warn everyone about every possible type of attack, so that if and when the next one occurs we can say..."
Flak 1: "... I told you so?! That's brilliant! Bob, call your guy at the Post and see if you can sell that cyber attack story. Frank, get the Times on the phone, tell them ... oh you'll think of something! Ted, start posting stories on Slashdot; those hackers suck up every meme that's going..."
Scene of chaos as flunkies run in every direction to Flak 1's barked commands.

Something like that, right?

A quote from Assistant Secretary of Defense thing

[aelvin]

"DCS and SCADA systems might be accessible to bits and bytes," Assistant Secretary of Defense John P. Stenbit said in an interview. But al Qaeda prefers simple, reliable plans and would not allow the success of a large-scale attack "to be dependent on some sophisticated, tricky cyber thing to work."

I don't know whether to be more concerned about a potential cyber attack or the fact that the Assistant Secretary of Defense refers to critical infrastructure as "some sophisticated, tricky cyber thing."

Consulting

[carlos_benj]

....a consultant used his inside knowledge of a local sewage treatment system to dump raw sewage, hoping for a contract to solve the problem he created.

Isn't that what consultants do everywhere? Come in, dump raw sewage, hope for a contract.