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At How Much Risk Is the US's Critical Infrastructure? (csoonline.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the somewhere-between-a-little-and-a-lot dept.

itwbennett writes: There is growing evidence that intrusions into the power grid and other critical infrastructure by hostile foreign nation states are real and happening. But there's "much less agreement over how much of a threat hackers are," writes Taylor Armerding. "On one side are those – some of them top government officials – who have warned that a cyber attack on the nation's critical infrastructure could be catastrophic,"writes Armerding. Others are crying FUD, including C. Thomas, a strategist at Tenable Network Security, who got some attention when he argued in an op-ed that the biggest threat to the U.S. power grid not a skilled hacker, but squirrels, are crying FUD. Who has it right? Agreement seems to coalesce around two points: 1) the cyber security of industrial control systems remains notoriously weak and 2) hostile hackers will improve their skills over time. So, while we haven't reached "catastrophe" yet, a properly motivated terrorist group could become a cyber threat.

4 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. From neglect or from hackers? by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because the former is WAY greater a threat than the latter.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:From neglect or from hackers? by cayenne8 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      When it comes to infrastructure it's a continuous work since people have a tendency to move around.

      It also takes a bit of intelligence and forethought.

      I mean, WHOSE bright idea was it, to put critical infrastructure controls on the internet for God's sake? Let's not get into the fact they often put things up very insecurely, but the bigger question is, why are such components ON the fucking internet to begin with?

      Not everything needs to be connected, you know.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Answer: both by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "A cyber-attack could be catastrophic."

    "The biggest risk is squirrels."

    Do these people not understand that these two statements are not contradictory? Does anyone here understand that? The question "who is right" is trivial to answer. Both are.

    A cyber attack could be catastrophic, albeit rare. And squirrel outages, due to the comparatively high rate of occurrence combined with the level of damage, are a bigger risk.

  3. Re:It will all collapse by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The $800 billion stimulus bill was too small to make an impact and too many states used the money to pay for ongoing expenses rather than investing in infrastructure projects. It should have been two to three times larger. With the baby boomers retiring and the working taxpayers shrinking over the next 20 years, paying more taxes is an inevitable fact of life.