http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2014/11/28/chinese-cyber-attack-could-shut-down-u-s-electric-power-grid/
11/28/2014 @ 10:57AM 338 views Chinese Cyber Attack Could Shut Down U.S. Electric Power Grid Welcome to the increasingly dangerous world of cyber-warfare. The latest version; a western intelligence agency of unknown origin (according to the Financial Times of London) is infecting the internet service providers and sovereign telecoms operations of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mexico and Ireland. To what end is not known, though the cyber security company Symantec calls the malware extremely sophisticated. Then, there are the criminal elements, who have been hacking into the credit card details of JP Morgan Chase( 76 million customers’ names), and retailers like Home Depot, Target and EBay. Or the attempts going on by neer-do-well nations to break down the control of energy plants and factories, at times by criminal elements that act like stalking horses for sovereign nations up to no good. I wrote about this phenomenon a decade ago for Forbes magazine (“The Next Threat”) and raised the problem of private industry, especially public utilities, needing to invest major capital into establishing cyber defenses against the very real possibility that our enemies could break into the internet connections of urban public utilities and cause chaos and massive economic injury by closing down the public’s access to electricity as well as the operations of infrastructure projects like dams, gas pipelines and transportation systems. A DOD research facility in New Mexico plainly showed me how the nation’s public utility system could be penetrated and closed down via their internet connection. Apparently, we have made little or no progress in the past decade of defending our artificial light and energy. It appears that our enemies(read competitors) have made exceedingly greater progress in their sophisticated cyber- warfare techniques than we have achieved in defending ourselves. Now comes Admiral Michael Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, who warned last week that China and perhaps two other unnamed nations had ” the ability to launch a cyber attack that could shut down the entire U.S. power grid and other critical infrastructure.” Such a dire possibility should well have gotten a wider prominent play in the media. yet Admiral Rogers, underscored that software detected in china could seriously damage our nation’s economic future by interfering with the electric utility power companies that the citizens of New York, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit and other urban centers require as the basic life blood of survival. This possibility is a great deal more dangerous than stealing 76 million names of JP Morgan Chase’s customers. This not a Sci-Fi fantasy being perpetrated as a hoax on the American public. The NSA head flatly predicted that ” It is only a matter of the when, not the if, that we are going to see something traumatic.” He admitted NSA was watching multiple nations invest in this dangerous capability. he called it a ‘coming trend,” where our vulnerability will be equivalent to a hole in our software systems that are unseen by the multinational company, the public utility, the telecom giant, the defense manufacturer, the Department of Defense. NATO took the threat seriously enough to organize mock cyber-wargame trials in Estonia several days ago that appeared to indicate the western nations are aware of the need to fight on a new battlefield where the enemy cannot be seen physically. It was the largest digital warfare exercise ever attempted, a trial run to test dealing with a new non-military threat to global security. Consider the financial damage to our nation from an attack that could shut down the power systems of major cities. As Forbes pointed out a decade ago, there was a very great need to spend the money building firewalls around our infrastructure’s internet communications network. we are in worse shape today, since NSA chief Rogers plainly told the congressional intelligence committee last week ” the Chinese intelligence services that conduct these attacks have little to fear because we have no practical deterrents to that threat. The cyber threat is real. America had better wake up to the need to defend the cogwheels of our economy from the electronic reconnaissance attacking our industrial control systems. Public opinion needs to be aroused by the media and security officials into a threat that no one can see as it is invisible. it is not Soviet missiles we fear, but inroads by nation states and criminal elements fronting for them. Our cyber command capabilities are as crucial as our Special Forces in beating back ISIS and other Islamic terrorists. __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcDVmN2RuBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTcyMTMwNDg-> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlbnA1dmF2BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQxNzIxMzA0OA--> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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