http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/a-hackers-hit-list-of-american-infrastructure/384166/
By Patrick Tucker
The Atlantic
Jan 2, 2015
On Friday, December 19, the FBI officially named North Korea as the party
responsible for a cyber attack and email theft against Sony Pictures. The
Sony hack saw many studio executives’s sensitive and embarrassing emails
leaked online. The hackers threatened to attack theaters on the opening
day of the offending film, The Interview, and Sony pulled the plug on the
movie, effectively censoring a major Hollywood studio. (Sony partially
reversed course, allowing the movie to show in 331 independent theaters on
Christmas Day, and to be streamed online.)
Technology journalists were quick to point out that, even though the cyber
attack could be attributable to a nation state actor, it wasn’t
particularly sophisticated. Ars Technica’s Sean Gallagher likened it to a
“software pipe bomb.”
But according to cyber-security professionals, the Sony hack may be a
prelude to a cyber attack on United States infrastructure that could occur
in 2015, as a result of a very different, self-inflicted document dump
from the Department of Homeland Security in July.
Here’s the background: On July 3, DHS, which plays “key role” in
responding to cyber-attacks on the nation, replied to a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request on a malware attack on Google called
“Operation Aurora.”
Unfortunately, as Threatpost writer Dennis Fisher reports, DHS officials
made a grave error in their response. DHS released more than 800 pages of
documents related not to Operation Aurora but rather the Aurora Project, a
2007 research effort led by Idaho National Laboratory demonstrating how
easy it was to hack elements in power and water systems.
Oops.
[...]
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