Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Utah Cyberattacks, Up To 300 Million Per Day, May Be Aimed At NSA Facility

Posted by timothy on from the knock-knock dept.

schwit1 writes Five years ago, Utah government computer systems faced 25,000 to 30,000 attempted cyberattacks every day. At the time, Utah Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires thought that was massive. "But this last year we have had spikes of over 300 million attacks against the state databases" each day: a 10,000-fold increase. Why? Squires says it is probably because Utah is home to the new, secretive National Security Agency computer center, and hackers believe they can somehow get to it through state computer systems. "I really do believe it was all the attention drawn to the NSA facility. In the cyberworld, that's a big deal," Squires told a legislative budget committee Tuesday. "I watched as those increases jumped so much over the last few years. And talking to counterparts in other states, they weren't seeing that amount of increase like we were."

2 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. What is a "cyberattack"? by langelgjm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The article doesn't say. A ping flood? Attempted DOS? Attempt to connect to telnet port?

    Sorry, but this guy is clearly exaggerating the number in order to try and get more money. Kind of like when Darryl on The Office wrote on his resume that he had overseen the "shipping of 2.5 billion units of paper material." I.e., pieces of paper.

    --
    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
  2. Hacking the NSA by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "hackers believe they can somehow get to it through state computer systems. "

    The article makes it sound like the folks doing this are idiots. However, if you really wanted to be a significant thorn in the side of the NSA, would you really attack them directly knowing those systems would be some of the hardest targets on the planet ?

    Or perhaps go after some of the potentially easier targets such as the power grid or water control systems that feed a particular site ?

    That mammoth data center and all the super-computers within it won't be doing a damn thing if you shut off the water supply required to cool it. Ditto for the electricity, though they likely have back-up power, I doubt it's sufficient to run the entire site non-stop for extended periods of time.

    Sort of the whole " Why try to kick down the armored door if a glass window is available to you ? " sort of thing.