Slashdot Mirror
Washington Post Retracts Story About Russian Hackers Penetrating US Electricity Grid (washingtonpost.com)
Those anonymous U.S. officials who reported Russian hacking code had been found "within the system" of a Vermont power utility must've been surprised to learn the code was on a laptop that wasn't actually connected to the grid. The Washington Post has updated their original story, which now reports that "authorities" say there's no indication that Russian hackers have penetrated the U.S. electric grid.
The Post's newly-edited version now appears below (with their original and now-deleted text preseved inside brackets). A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials. While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the discovery underscores the vulnerabilities of the nation's electrical grid... [Was "the penetration of the nation's electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability."]
American officials, including one senior administration official, said they are not yet sure what the intentions of the Russians might have been. The incursion [was "penetration"] may have been designed to disrupt the utility's operations or as a test by the Russians to see whether they could penetrate a portion of the grid... According to the report by the FBI and DHS, the hackers involved in the Russian operation used fraudulent emails that tricked their recipients into revealing passwords.
The Vermont utility does report that they'd "detected suspicious Internet traffic" on the laptop, but they believe subsequent news coverage got the story wrong. "It's unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country."
The Post's newly-edited version now appears below (with their original and now-deleted text preseved inside brackets). A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials. While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the discovery underscores the vulnerabilities of the nation's electrical grid... [Was "the penetration of the nation's electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability."]
American officials, including one senior administration official, said they are not yet sure what the intentions of the Russians might have been. The incursion [was "penetration"] may have been designed to disrupt the utility's operations or as a test by the Russians to see whether they could penetrate a portion of the grid... According to the report by the FBI and DHS, the hackers involved in the Russian operation used fraudulent emails that tricked their recipients into revealing passwords.
The Vermont utility does report that they'd "detected suspicious Internet traffic" on the laptop, but they believe subsequent news coverage got the story wrong. "It's unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country."
Some organizations started to inject fake phishing emails into their communication systems. All employees who clicked get their heads bashed with a rock.
NSA has failed us again. Instead protecting America, they are wasting their and our time by mass collecting data on citizens. Instead of making sure exploits are fixed to keep our systems secure, they hold onto them so they can use them against us and other countries.
If am I to believe this Russian hacking our systems like the Government is pushing, then the blame goes straight on the NSA and those who backed them.
Be seeing you...
Exactly, bullshit. It sounds to me like an employee used his laptop to visit an infected website, or answered a general phishing mail.
Hardly an attack aimed at the grid, and volume cranked up to 11 by WP as a part of the general current panic to glorify Obama and what his administration has done, and undermine the incoming administration.
Or the WP feels it is simply unimportant to get proper attribution and any of the details right.
While the phishing attack may have originated in Russia, I find it disingenious to portray everything as state sponsored when the evidence is weak at best. To me its something akin to suggesting we need to retaliate against Australia every time Julian Assange takes a leak.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
There have been substantial penetrations of the US Power Grid, but this was -not- one of them. I remember hearing about vulnerabilities in the electrical grid and other SCADA critical infrastructure in the '90s. The one guy who talked about that worked for the EPRI, and ended up getting fired because he continually pointed out how the utilities were -ignoring- the problem.
(Agree, mod parent up, good link!)
Beyond the obvious fact that you are overlooking Russia's nuclear stockpile, your analysis of US-Russian Naval warfare seems delusional at best. A larger surface fleet was never the answer to the Russians that never focused on that to begin with. It's not our super carriers that matter as much as our ASW capacity.
Like many things... it's not how big it is but how you use it.
Furthermore, our current crop of Destroyers aren't a threat to anyone. Not even Cuba.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Do you trust all the three letter agencies when they tell us they need to plant backdoors in all our phones and computers to keep us safe?
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Look, basically everyone in the Middle East is shitty. However, we are an enabler for the shittiness of both Israel and Saudi Arabia. We could easily tell them, "we aren't going to give you billions of dollars in aid and weapons unless you follow the UNDHR and follow international law." But we don't. We suck both of them off every single time, and anybody who complains is [current stock insult here].
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
That's about the most lame "retraction" I've seen to a fake news story. The entire central premise has been destroyed, but 98% of the article remains unchanged. That's not a retraction. Also of note:
Original Slashdot headline:
Russian Hackers Penetrated The US Electricity Grid, Say Officials (washingtonpost.com)
Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday December 31, 2016 @10:34AM from the power-play dept.
blah, blah, fake story
Conveniently, now Slashdot now doesn't have that lingering headline showing they fell for this idiocy as well. I thought I'd just post it for posterity here.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
From the Burlington Electric website linked in TFS:
Federal officials have indicated that this specific type of Internet traffic also has been observed elsewhere in the country and is not unique to Burlington Electric. It’s unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country.
So, Burlington Electric itself is admitting mea culpa on this one.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.