** Russian Cyber Expert: Hackers Could Shut Down Power In Most Of The World In* ***
A Decade**** Reuters | Sep. 27, 2012, 5:16 PM | 2,905 | 10**** http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-cyber-expert-hackers-could-shut-down-power-in-most-of-the-world-in-a-decade-2012-9 **** ** ** ** ** ** ** hackNY via Flickr**** Uncontrolled security threats on the Internet could return much of the**** planet to an era without electricity or automated transportation, top U.S.** ** and Russian experts said on Thursday.**** ** ** Former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden warned that the**** United States had yet to resolve basic questions about how to police the**** Internet, let alone how to defend critical infrastructure such as electric** ** generation plants.**** ** ** And if recently discovered and government-sponsored intrusion software**** proliferates in the same way that viruses have in the past, "somewhere in*** * 2020, maybe 2040, we'll get back to a romantic time - no power, no cars, no* *** trains," said Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive officer of Moscow-based**** Kaspersky Lab, the largest privately held security vendor.**** ** ** The back-to-back presentations at a Washington conference painted the**** starkest picture to date about the severity of the cybersecurity problem.*** * ** ** The past two years have seen an escalation of such warnings, especially**** about what U.S. officials have termed an unprecedented theft of trade**** secrets and, more lately, mounting threats to infrastructure.**** ** ** At the same time, Congress failed last month to pass legislation aimed at*** * protecting vital facilities, which Hayden bemoaned, and Kaspersky earlier*** * this year detected extremely sophisticated surveillance programs that**** infiltrated personal computers and energy facilities in the Middle East.**** ** ** If previous viruses were like bicycles, Kaspersky said, then the Stuxnet**** worm that damaged uranium enrichment centrifuges at the Natanz plant in Iran **** two years ago would be a plane, and the latest programs, dubbed Flame and*** * Gauss, would be "space shuttles."**** ** ** Researchers are still dissecting those heavily encrypted viruses. Kaspersky* *** and others say they are related to Stuxnet, which officials have privately** ** admitted was designed by U.S. and Israel intelligence forces.**** ** ** But Kaspersky said Stuxnet, Flame and Gauss would become templates.**** ** ** Although Stuxnet infected thousands of machines in friendly nations, it was* *** written by cautious "professionals" who minimized collateral damage,**** Kaspersky said at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit at the National Press* *** Club. The knock-off versions by others will be much less discriminating, he* *** added.**** ** ** To show how quickly computer attacks can proliferate, Kaspersky said an**** electronic assault that disabled thousands of computers at Saudi Arabia's*** * Aramco in mid-August had followed a separate infection reported by an**** Iranian oil company a few months ago.**** ** ** Mounting a defense against nation-sponsored attacks will be extraordinarily* *** difficult, Kaspersky said, as it requires new operating systems designed to* *** manage equipment at crucial facilities. He said stopping criminals and**** terrorists who will adopt the same techniques would take strong**** international cooperation and deeper monitoring of the Internet, which many* *** oppose on privacy grounds.**** ** ** "We need to upgrade our understanding that the world is different,"**** Kaspersky said. "We need to pay more attention to the critical information** ** technology security issues."**** ** ** Yet Kaspersky and Hayden said international treaties or even nonbinding**** agreements were nowhere in sight.**** ** ** What is more, Hayden said, both the divided U.S. Congress and even different **** agencies within the executive branch have failed to reach a consensus on**** fundamental concepts, in part because the issues are still so new.**** ** ** A Senate bill backed by President Barack Obama would have set voluntary**** cybersecurity standards for critical plants and allowed for greater**** information-sharing between intelligence agencies and private companies. But **** the bill encountered opposition from both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,**** which objected to additional regulation, and the American Civil Liberties*** * Union, which was worried about privacy issues.**** ** ** The White House is now developing an executive order that would not go so*** * far, but it still wants more powerful laws.**** ** ** Even inside the administration, Hayden said, the Defense Department has**** defined cyberspace as a warfare domain that it must "dominate," while the*** * Department of Homeland Security has publicly disagreed.**** ** ** A core problem is that the same communications networks are used both for*** * military operations and civilian transactions, which are protected from**** unreasonable searches.**** ** ** While most Americans would welcome a local police officer shining a light at **** a shrub in their yard after seeing something suspicious, almost no one would **** feel the same way about questionable Internet activity.**** ** ** The National Security Agency has the most advanced capabilities for**** cyberattacks and defense in the world, Hayden said.**** ** ** "It is awesome," he said. "But nobody there has the authorization to defend* *** you," because the NSA is generally barred from domestic eavesdropping.**** ** ** As governments and companies recognize that they have all been hacked and*** * focus more on limiting the damage from breaches, Hayden called for more**** extensive debate from civilians on how the United States should treat the*** * Internet.**** ** ** "You and I have not yet given our government guidance about what we want it* *** to do," he said.**** ** ** Read more:**** http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-cyber-expert-hackers-could-shut-down- **** power-in-most-of-the-world-in-a-decade-2012-9#ixzz27zwMqN1Z**** ** ** ==========================================**** (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this **** message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to* *** these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed **** within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with**** "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. **** The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The**** Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain**** permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials* *** if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,**** teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria* *** for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies** ** as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four** ** criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is**** determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not*** * substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use**** copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you **** must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: **** http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml **** ** ** THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS **** PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.**** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
