Article Entry

08 Apr 2009

Comments:3

Cyberspies Have Penetrated the U.S. Electrical Grid

Added by USGIF Category: Daily Intelligence Brief

Once again, cybersecurity is coming to the top of the list of concerns/priorities for the security of our nation. You all may have seen our coverage yesterday of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) urging the Obama Administration to move forward with naming a czar to lead a cyber security overhaul. Well, INSA is right. We need to act soon because cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electricity grid.

The Wall Street Journal broke this story this morning, and basically cyber-terrorists have broken into the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could disrupt the entire system. According to the article, the spies came from China and Russia and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The good news is that they haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure — but could during a crisis or war.

The bottomline is that the U.S. government needs to take a more offensive approach in stopping these rings of international hackers who not only raid our online bank accounts, but also tamper with our critical infrastructure. The consequences could be devastating. What do you all think? We want your thoughts on this.

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3 Comments »

  1. Joe Larson wrote: 8 April 2009

    This is ‘scare tatic propoganda’. I don’t believe it for a second and I wish this site would buy-in to that propoganda and fear. This would just be another power grab move with legislation to restrict our freedoms of internet and energy.

    Here’s a quote: “Nuclear weapons and other sensitive military systems, as well as the computer systems of the CIA and FBI, are ‘air-gapped,’ making them inaccessible to outside hackers. Systems in the private sector tend to be less well protected, but they are far from defenseless, and nightmarish tales of their vulnerability tend to be largely apocryphal.” http://www.infowars.com/rockefeller-internet-is-number-one-national-hazard/

    The article includes a YouTube clip of Jay Rockefeller saying “It really almost makes you ask the question would it have been better if we had never invented the internet”. Do you really hold any validity to the two new pieces of legislation S.773 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s773/show and S.778 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s778/show that this man would have the audacity to introduce?

  2. JM wrote: 8 April 2009

    I agree with the sentiment that this is scare tactic propaganda. So far this technique as worked for everything else the administration has wanted. Why stop now?

    Fear influences people to do or approve of things they would not have otherwise. If people can’t see through this by now, I don’t know how much hope there is to see it.

    However, there are real threats. I work in the security field and have had job offers to provide network security to a major power grid installation. Things have changed from the “air gap” model that existed prior to 2004. Convenience of control across the grid seems to have trumped security is some aspects. How much this has occurred is the question.

    There is no reason to have a Cyber Czar other than to assert more direct power. More power means less freedom. I find it ironic how the media threw a fit about the Patriot act when many of the things being put in place by the administration in the past 100 days are 10 times more dangerous to personal freedom.

  3. JME wrote: 9 April 2009

    Nothing “Breaking” about this story, just pulling out the latest arrow from the quiver of scare, call it a scarrow if you like.
    This same story is from 2005:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25738-2005Mar10?language=printer

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