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Hackers Have Infiltrated the US Power Grid's Control Networks (lasvegassun.com)
davidwr writes: A security researcher and the Associated Press are reporting that hackers have infiltrated many of the United States' power grid networks. "About a dozen times in the last decade, sophisticated foreign hackers have gained enough remote access to control the operations networks that keep the lights on, according to top experts who spoke only on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter." Exfiltrated data included engineering plans and other non-public information that could aid an attacker later, as well as account credentials. Multiple companies were affected, but one of the more notable ones was the energy provider Calpine. "Circumstantial evidence such as snippets of Persian comments in the code helped investigators conclude that Iran was the source of the attacks. Calpine didn't know its information had been compromised until it was informed by Cylance, Kerr said."
I guess that's payback for the centrifuge hacks the US did on them.
This isn't too difficult. A couple years ago you could go to Shodan, search for well-known industrial automation equipment providers like Phoenix Contact, and try to find their devices with embedded web servers that someone has connected to the internet. Start clicking on IP addresses. Make sure you don't mess with anything you find. One interesting find was some of the big windmill turbines with real-time monitoring and everything. People installing this stuff really don't understand what they're doing.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Good morning, Slashdotters! We sure don't want your ambient fear level dropping (because your higher reasoning abilities might actually start functioning at 100% again if they do), so this is your Monday morning FUD report! See your tax dollars at work? Remember, you're here forever!
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*facepalm*
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Anonymous so called "experts" and all these examples read like a plot from the TV show "24" lead me to a hypothesis that this story is complete and utter BS or more likely propaganda to increase some governmental budget that benefits from cyberwar funding.
putting on my skeptical hat here to consider alternate views. One could easily wonder about the "anonymous" nature of this disclosure and how the message is about instilling fear. Who profits? It would be easy to conclude that this is a propaganda release with the aim of softening up the sheeple's perspective to allow for increased budget expenses, or even direct action at the supposed culprits. Blaming a nation-state on flimsy evidence such as what language was used suggests a preconception being reinforced by circumstancial tidbits. Afterall, there can't ever be anyone else in the world that speaks that language, perhaps even within one of the superpowers known to be fairly multicultural. Or those who hirer foreign workers. Yep, a sceptic would be wary of reports like this - even if the infiltration is 100% true.
In China, if you cut corners in how you run your business and people die because of it, the government reserves the right to put you up against the wall. Corruption issues with due process there aside, that is probably the only way stuff like this, Deepwater Horizon and other disasters will be prevented. Stop going after the company and go directly after the people that chose to cut corners to "maximize shareholder value." Catch them, try them and execute them.
I could just imagine what it would look like if hecklers broke into power grid control centers and started making fun of the technicians and engineers.
The USA has its infrastructure, military, and so much of its business hooked up to and dependent on the internet, you'd think it'd be a priority to make it more secure and stable. Instead, the NSA are doing their best to undermine web security and leave the USA open to attack. What are top secret hacking tools and techniques that only govts. have today are available to corporations and criminal gangs the next and the public/hackers thereafter. We need a more secure, private internet. No backdoors, no unpatched zero-day exploits, no offensive tools to get into the wrong hands, and an end to the cyber-weapons arms race that the USA has started.
There was a comment about hailing "Hypnotoad" in the code.
Surely this is a case for leased lines if anything at minimum?
More likely this is just BS to justify screwing with the internet..
Utilities are like consumer router manufacturers. They don't give a shit about security and they don't even try.
And why is it that the managers and people who make the decisions to expose these systems to the public internet are still working? The systems could not be hacked via the internet if they weren't available. Time to start placing the blame where it actually belongs.
Whoever connected the power grid to the Grid is a FOOL!
Do you realize what this means? ISIS could be in your power lines radicalizing your toaster right now and you'd never even know it until your toast started catching fire!
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
What is this clickbait? Isn't the world frazzled enough without headlines such as this?
"I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one."
Well, they've "executed" (shut down) more than one school district since the turn of the century. Does that make school districts people?
Don't worry, the kids and school buildings (and taxing authority) all got merged into a neighboring school district.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
There's no reason to have critical infrastructure attached to the Internet. Also don't allow any "maintenance" via a USB thumb drive.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
>> Hackers Have Infiltrated the US Power Grid's Control Networks
That's wrong.
it should read : "Power Grid's Control Networks are very weak security-wise, and everybody can go in on the front door, not only in the US."
aaaaaaa
"Circumstantial evidence such as snippets of Persian comments in the code helped investigators conclude that Iran was the source of the attacks."
if this is true(and is not an another false claim to ramp-up rhetoric against iran),it seems these so called "investigators" are easy dupes. that should really worry people as much as hacking itself
top experts who spoke only on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. . .
Why are they anonymous? What are they afraid of? Are they stinking traitor scum?
We've been hearing this ever since the CIA within the CIA hired top assassins (Jean Souetre, Moise Maschkivitzin, Lazlo the Hungarian and the CIA's own, Lucien Conein) to murder President Kennedy.
If it is true, then "they" should come forward and declare who they are, otherwise STFU, spineless, cowardly traitor scum!
Air gap. Learn it, live it, love it.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
If the SCADA systems are freaking ON THE INTERNET then the executives need to be put in jail and all their family assets taken and treated as terrorists.
Only the worlds most incompetent would put ANY SCADA system on the internet with any access ability. Private point to point networks with encrypted tunneling on those private point to points.
Oh that is expensive? WAHHHHH. suck it up.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"WINDMILLS SHOULD NOT WORK THAT WAY!!"
A big advantage of decentralization is that mass disruption is hard to pull off. http://www.rmi.org/reinventing...
If the SCADA systems are freaking ON THE INTERNET then the executives need to be put in jail and all their family assets taken and treated as terrorists.
I find your thoughts about the constitution to be very compelling, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Also, would you agree that people on the no-fly list, no matter how they got on it, should be deprived of their constitutionally protected rights without any sort of due process? I thought you would! Please feature your praise of that scenario in your next newsletter, and be sure I get a copy in my new subscription.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
One thing that is clear is that capitalism is incompatible with computer security*. In lieu of a massive regulatory overhaul that won't happen, we should be switching to independent self-sustainable systems. Therefore, people should switch to using solar panels with battery backup for power because they are both independent and self-sustainable. For those who do not have the space to do so, you will remain at the mercy of the power grid until you get the space.
* Capitalism is about making money. Making a perfectly secure product is expensive and would be counter-productive when you could just sell new versions of the same thing.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Am I completely naive in thinking that critical systems like this shouldn't have a link to the public internet? I know it may be expensive to build out your own network, but it seems worth it. I
The bottom line is that if the US wages war on ANY medium or large country, we should expect infrastructure outages and perhaps sabotage. That's probably the same for all countries. There are surely gaps lurking about ready to be exploited.
Buy a good book to read when everything electric is out. A month supply of food and water could also come in handy. If you are in bigger city; and power, traffic signals, trains, truck ignition systems, etc. start goofin' up, it will take a while to get enough basic supplies in.
Table-ized A.I.
Because China is a morale compass for all of us to follow.
Funny "morale" vs. "moral"...
While they are *certainly* a bad *moral* compass, it would certainly improve my *morale* if idiots like this were shot...
and the next time it will be Russian comments, or Chinese comments, or whoever is on the current agenda.
Sure, blame it on the mooselims
Now, this was four years ago, so it might be a lot better now; but I worked for an RF smart metering firm and their security and authentication was appallingly bad. The problem with the free market and new technology is that the incentive just isn't there to do it right the first time when you can do it wrong and still get sales (and then require the users to buy a replacement product later on). We had some large purchases of our products (think home meters for half the the biggest state in the US as one of our larger clients) that were in my mind pretty weakly secured. I'm not surprised to hear they've been infiltrated.
At least the good guys can access the power grid over the Internet because lord knows it was a massive inconvenience driving down to a local power plant or distributor. /s
In his recent book "Lights Out" Ted Koppel (of ABC news "Nightline" fame) lays out in pretty good detail how and why he and others believe this is the case. Read it. And consider preparing for it.
There still is the load shedding control system in use which does not require a internet connection. I'll leave the details out but let's just say that if someone was serious about messing up the grid the hack is trivial.
Ahh comments from the "I dont have a fucking clue crowd" I love these.
Lumpy is technically right. Only complete Drooling morons would ever put a SCADA system on the internet.
Sadly most companies are in fact ran by said drooling morons, It's a requirement to be an executive, I believe there was a federal mandate back in 2004.
There's only one solution: Congress will have to pass a law that makes it mandatory for Homeland Security to bug our household smart meters.
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Karma? No... God's punishment of a nation-state who is turning away from Him. Some of the pinnacles of this nation's transgressions are abortion and outright support of homosexuality, which lead to what? Infiltration by foreigners, defeat by enemies, and inevitable captivity of its poeple. Yes, we Americans are facing these things because this nation has turned away from God. At the very roots of our infrastructure, our systems, we're facing the makings of a punishment that God orchestrates through our enemies. That's how He's always operated.
Most professing Christians don't understand that Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament, has not changed His mode of operations, because in addition to Love, God is judge! As the U.S. stands today, so did the ancient nation of Israel. When they allowed themselves to be led into sin, God allowed sinful kings to become their rulers as national punishment. Then, the nations around them looked down upon them with disdain for their immorality and wickedness, because they, of all nations, were supposed to be a model nation of God! Then, as a nation, they were punished with captivity, which looks inevitable for the U.S. without God's intervention. But will God intervene? Only if there's wide-scale repentance.
The good news is, even without wide-scale repentance, each of us can individually repent to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ and will be better off for it. It takes work - Bible Study and prayer and fasting. So work while you have the light!
"that people wouldn't sacrifice for their strongly held beliefs?"
In an evolutionary context, why would people ever have beliefs strong enough they would die for them? Genes that contribute to such behavior should quickly vanish from the gene pool! But they clearly don't. The key to this is that the suicide bombers (or in times gone by tribal warriors) were not the only ones to carry the "die for the cause" genes. Their children did and if you work out the math, it turns out that genes for getting so wrapped up in a cause as to kill and be killed for it did better under reoccurring situations of ecological crisis than doing nothing. The main reason is that the young women who carried copies of the genes of defeated warriors were taken into the victorious tribe as wives and the warrior's genes marched on. Statistically, the effect was about 37% better survival for genes to get hyped up to kill neighbors--under some circumstances. If you work the model the other way, where circumstances did not favor this behavior, the bias was 45% against. So both the tendency to sacrifice and judging when it was effective were strongly selected over the past few million years.
It's weird, but it looks like both wars and religions (i.e., strongly held beliefs) are closely related and both stem from young women being booty in past human environment of evolutionary adaptedness.
End MGM. Get prospective parents of boys to Google: Men do complain