Chinese Hackers Infiltrate US Army Database, Compromise Safety of Dams

coolnumbr12 writes "Chinese hackers have infiltrated a sensitive U.S. Army database that contains information about the vulnerabilities of thousands of dams located throughout the United States. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' National Inventory of Dams (NID) has raised concerns that information gathered in the hack could help China carry out a cyber-attack on the national electrical power grid."

Comments

Re:Not the hack compromises the safety

[Karl Cocknozzle]

The vulnerabilities of the dams are the real problem, but for some reason the government prefers to lie about that. Most of these vulnerabilities are probably pretty obvious to an expert (and, yes, the Chinese have experts on damns and these can go to the US for vacation), so hiding these problems is pretty stupid in the first place.

Right, but we don't want no more liberal big gubmint!" And so the dams go unrepaired. As go the bridges. And waterways. And embankments. And highway offramps...

Every great many years something fails spectacularly, and a few dozen commuters get splashed into the river. See also Minneapolis... Then lip service is paid, asses are kissed, and in the end only the absolutely worst bridges are fixed, the rest simply get "back-burnered" until the next stimulus bill comes along. And millions of commuters drive over these roads and bridges every single day.

Have fun! I'm riding my bike.