Slashdot Mirror
US Government Warns Of 'Ongoing' Hacks Targeting Nuclear and Power Industries (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Reuters:
The U.S government issued a rare public warning that sophisticated hackers are targeting energy and industrial firms, the latest sign that cyber attacks present an increasing threat to the power industry and other public infrastructure. The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation warned in a report distributed by email late on Friday that the nuclear, energy, aviation, water and critical manufacturing industries have been targeted along with government entities in attacks dating back to at least May. The agencies warned that hackers had succeeded in compromising some targeted networks, but did not identify specific victims or describe any cases of sabotage. The objective of the attackers is to compromise organizational networks with malicious emails and tainted websites to obtain credentials for accessing computer networks of their targets, the report said.
According to the report, the Department of Homeland Security "has confidence that this campaign is still ongoing and threat actors are actively pursuing their objectives over a long-term campaign."
According to the report, the Department of Homeland Security "has confidence that this campaign is still ongoing and threat actors are actively pursuing their objectives over a long-term campaign."
Isn't it too bad we do nothing but discourage intelligent local grads from going into the IT industry, by making it clear that salaries and compensation in the industry are to be limited by the economies of the very people who are attacking us.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Any bets the majority of compromised computers ran a version of windows? We need to stop using Windows in these environments.
pics or it didn't happen
Why did the NSA and CIA start a cyber arms race when the USA is the most vulnerable to the kinds of attacks it's creating and therefore provoking from non-USA aligned countries?
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
Is that your security philosophy? If that's the case then you're an idiot. Pulling a cable doesn't make something secure. You need an entire culture of security to do that.
None whatsoever!
Oh I see now you don't actually work in the industry. Sorry but there's a myriad of reasons that these systems need to be networked over a wide scale, the least of which isn't that they don't work otherwise.
If you need constant monitoring of stuff, give someone a job to monitor.
Err no. Get a clue.
Pulling the cable makes something more secure. It drastically diminishes the number of potential intruders.
Not necessarily. Quite often pulling the cable makes everything less secure as it breeds a culture of complacency at best and breeds a better kind of idiot at worst. Pulling a cable is absolutely no substitute for actually having security thought through in the organisation, and I'll take well thought out firewall / VPN infrastructure any day over the pull the cable approach which by its nature necessitates bypassing the airgap.
Anything that doesn't need to be on the Internet shouldn't have a connection, so instead of a good firewall, you should chose the best firewall.
You've lost. Everything needs a network connection somewhere, and every network eventually needs a connection to the internet. The key is segregation in the design stage. Otherwise you'll end up with what we call box-rot, a set of computer systems isolated constantly being connected to and from with various mechanisms or best yet, ignored completely with security issues more wide open than a $2 hooker.
This 'need to be networked' thing is nice on paper
That paper is often one of the following:
- Legal requirement
- Technical limitation
- Geographical limitation
- Operational limitation
Most organisations would be unable to operate a local compressor without some access to a wider network let alone a country wide wind farm, energy grid, etc.
If you think everything has to be on the Internet, then in your words 'you are an idiot'.
But I repeat myself: Oh I see now you don't actually work in the industry.