Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Water Pump Destruction Not Due To SCADA Hack

Posted by Unknown on from the anonymous-not-affliated-with-yippies dept.

knifeyspooney writes "According to the Springfield State Journal-Register, the city's recent public water system failure was not caused by malicious activity. One water district trustee spoke this gem: 'First, they tell us that it's the first instance of cyber hacking in the entire world, and everyone goes nuts. Now, all of a sudden, they tell us it's not.'"

10 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. First instance? by Aryden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    say what? first instance of cyber hacking? are you suuuuuuuure about that?

    1. Re:First instance? by cribb · · Score: 5, Funny

      They trendsourced it.

      As MrEricSir once wrote: (http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1174265&cid=27321897)

      Def. trendsource
      -verb: to solve problems using popular buzzwords

      ("The water utility trendsourced the cyberhack by integrating crowdsourcing with Agile methodologies automated with a SOAP communication layer.")

      --
      Hostes alienigieni me abduxerunt. Qui annus est?
    2. Re:First instance? by 7x7 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wired still seems to think it was a hack, or at least something fishy is going on. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/scada-hack-report-wrong/

  2. Manipulating the stupid masses through media. by unity100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    simple. you tell that it is due to cyberhack. everyone goes nuts, endless number of articles spread throughout internet. then you admit that it wasnt. at this point it is now impossible to change misinformation. the misinformation spreads, public opinion is shaped. you can pass your $OPA act.

    http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/07/11/3265013.htm

    http://idle.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/07/14/1235220

    --
    Read radical news here
    1. Re:Manipulating the stupid masses through media. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Isn't all that tinfoil a little scratchy?

  3. This is the FBI by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good morning Mr. Mayor,
    this is special agent Smith.

    Yes, we'd like you to say the water pump malfunctioned and wasn't hacked.

    No, no, I know about the truth, Mr. Mayor, but we don't want the public to be aware of the dangers they are in from exploding water towers and militarised telephone cables... or to encourage copycat hackers.

    Yes, yes... just say it was normal wear and tear.

    Oh, you're not going to comply?.. are you aware that we have an unauthorised GPS under your car and know what you do Tuesday nights? ... ahh I'm glad you see things our way.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  4. Y'all missed a critical paragraph in TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "How can two government agencies be so at odds at what’s going on here? Did the fusion center screw up, or is the fusion center being thrown under the bus?” commented Joe Weiss, the security expert who discovered the initial Fusion Center report and reported on it. “There’s a lot of black and white stuff in that report. Either there is or there isn’t a Russian IP address in there. It’s hard to miss that."

    1. Re:Y'all missed a critical paragraph in TFA by Bardwick · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Watch the attempted connections to any machine on a public IP. Probably takes about 20 minutes to get an IP from every country in the world.

  5. Re:So, the question is.... by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, but we would prefer if government agencies didn't jump to outrageous conclusions before all the information is gathered.

  6. Re:Help a /.er out by fotoguzzi · · Score: 4, Informative

    The book is called @Large.

    http://books.simonandschuster.com/At-Large/David-H-Freedman/9780684835587 Cuckoo's Egg might be the classic popular text from that era.

    http://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/0743411463

    --
    Their they're doing there hair.