United States and Canada During 2003 Power Outage
U.S. national security officials reported today that Chinese, Russian and other hostile nations have formed offensive cyber warfare units and that the Russians and Chinese may have penetrated the U.S. power grids. Cyber security experts said the sophistication of the attacks suggests the Russians and Chinese were responsible. They have mapped out the U.S. electrical grid system and possibly planted software “electronic time bombs” to knock out our power system.
The United States for several years has accused the Chinese and Russians, among others, of using cyber-attacks to try to steal American trade secrets, military secrets and government secrets. An anonymous official said, "They are all over the place, they're getting into university systems, contractor systems and hacking government systems. There's no reason to think that the electrical system would be immune as well."
Eric Rosenbach of Harvard University's said that if true, the Chinese and Russians are thinking strategically about how to either constrain the United States or inflict more damage if they ever felt they needed to do so. Rosenbach added, I think that China recognizes in a very strategic sense that they want to ensure that they have the ability to exploit another country's potential weakness or vulnerability but do it in a way that isn't confrontational or cause an international crisis.
CIA analyst Tom Donahue told a power-industry conference "we have information from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber-intrusion into utilities followed by extortion demands."
American Electric Power Co spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said, "We long ago identified that there are numerous scans and probes of our networks from external sources and have put in place a very comprehensive multi layered security system to protect it from internal and external intrusion attempts."
A former Department of Homeland Security official said, the espionage appeared pervasive across the United States and does not target a particular company or region. A senior intelligence official said authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components. He added, "If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on." Such cyber attacks would shut off electrical power and destroy generators.
The Chinese have also subsidized computer hackers around the world to attack computer networks. A U.S. Defense Department expert said we must disconnect the U.S. power grid control system from the Internet. He said this is an expensive solution but it is the only solution to protect our power system. If we don’t do this some day we could wake up and have no power. There is also mounting evidence the Chinese and others have been probing Pentagon computers.
Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems also are at risk.
Obama’s administration's is conducting a cyber security review and it is scheduled to be completed next week.
Terrorist groups could also develop the ability to penetrate U.S. power infrastructure but they do not appear to have mounted attacks.
Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, said, "Other than a nuclear device or some type of WMD, the threat to our infrastructure, the threat to our intelligence, the threat to our computer network is the most critical threat we face." Henry said terrorists want to "inflict the same kind of damage on our country, on all our networks, as they did in 2001 by flying planes into buildings."
Experts have coined the term "cybergeddon" to describe an attack on the computer networks of an advanced economy by expert computer hackers that produces catastrophic results.
Michael Balboni, deputy secretary for public safety in New York State, described "a huge threat out there" against everything from banking institutions to municipal water systems and dams.
Evidence indicated that during Russia’s war with Georgia in August 2008 that Russian hackers mounted huge assaults on Georgia’s Internet networks.
Russia attacked the Estonian cyber, electric grid and electronic system when Estonia and Russia got into an argument over Russian émigrés. Internet investigations proved later that the attack came from Moscow.
Palestinian sympathizers have orchestrated attacks against hundreds of Israeli websites.
Evan Kohlmann, with Global Terror Alert said Jihadist websites can be destroyed, but "you knock one out and another pops up the next day." Websites and social networking tools already allow underground Islamist leaders and militant organizations to recruit and communicate in safety worldwide. Militants are learning how to code software and they are getting help from freelance experts, including those in Russia.
Financial cyber criminals, who use the Internet to steal identities, siphon billions of dollars, and sometimes paralyze businesses, are also becoming more sophisticated.
Donald Codling, the FBI's cyber unit said, "It used to be we'd chase people around, literally carrying duffel bags of cash. Nowadays the guy can use his SIM chip and he can move money all over the world and his confederates can withdraw that money from an ATM in a currency of his or her choice. It's extraordinarily difficult for us to catch them." Codling expressed grudging admiration for the skills of his foes, who he said are highly motivated and often a step ahead of law enforcement. “Folks on the cutting edge of this crime are bad guys.”
Christopher Painter, an FBI specialist said the threat is largely invisible and therefore people do not always take it seriously. Painter said, "It's hard to get your head around the threat. We often discover a company that has been cyber attacked and we tell them that and they didn’t know they were attacked."
This year Super Bowl cable programming in the southwestern part of the United States was hit with a cyber porn attack.
Each year the Super Bowl football game attracts one of the largest audiences in the world. Audience and drama are crucial elements of motivation for terrorists. Terrorists gain that audience and drama with the Super Bowl and other mega events. An example of this audience and drama occurred when the Black September terrorist group attacked the Israelis at the Munich Olympics. It seemed like the whole world watched the terrorist incident on TV. We must never forget that the allure of terrorism is theater.
Just last week, 30 March, Sydney, Australia was struck with a two and one half hour blackout that plunged 70,000 houses and businesses into darkness. The blackout was sporadic some people found themselves completely without power while others were unaffected.
Officials at Energy Australia said faults on four major power cables were to blame for the outages. A power surge along one of the four cables, which connects North Sydney to the city, is believed to have caused all four to malfunction. Officials said, "These are major power cables, 132,000 volt cables and they supply two major sub-stations.
The Sydney Harbour Tunnel was closed but trains continued to run, with City Rail agreeing to recognise prepaid bus tickets to help those affected by the outage of more than 100 sets of traffic lights. The Fire Brigade fielded 40 emergency calls within 15 minutes of the blackout, nearly all for people trapped in elevators.
The Northeast Blackout of of 14 August 2003 (see photos above) was a massive widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and Ontario, Canada. It was the most widespread electrical blackout in history. The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in the Canadian province of Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.
No comments:
Post a Comment