The Cyber-Dam Breaks**** Sensitive Army database of U.S. dams compromised; Chinese hackers suspected* ***
http://freebeacon.com/the-cyber-dam-breaks/ **** ** ** ** ** BY: Bill Gertz **** May 1, 2013 5:00 am**** ** ** U.S. intelligence agencies traced a recent cyber intrusion into a sensitive* *** infrastructure database to the Chinese government or military cyber**** warriors, according to U.S. officials.**** ** ** The compromise of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' National Inventory of*** * Dams (NID) is raising new concerns that China is preparing to conduct a**** future cyber attack against the national electrical power grid, including*** * the growing percentage of electricity produced by hydroelectric dams.**** ** ** According to officials familiar with intelligence reports, the Corps of**** Engineers' National Inventory of Dams was hacked by an unauthorized user**** believed to be from China, beginning in January and uncovered earlier this** ** month.**** ** ** The database contains sensitive information on vulnerabilities of every**** major dam in the United States. There are around 8,100 major dams across**** waterways in the United States.**** ** ** Pete Pierce, a Corps of Engineers spokesman, confirmed the cyber incident*** * but declined to provide details.**** ** ** "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is aware that access to the National**** Inventory of Dams (NID), to include sensitive fields of information not**** generally available to the public, was given to an unauthorized individual** ** in January 2013 who was subsequently determined to not to have proper level* *** of access for the information," Pierce said in a statement.**** ** ** "[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] immediately revoked this user's access to*** * the database upon learning that the individual was not, in fact, authorized* *** full access to the NID," he said.**** ** ** The Corps is continuing to bolster and review security protocols governing** ** access to the database, he added.**** ** ** The Corps' dam database portal recently added a statement that said**** "usernames and passwords have changed to be compliant with recent security** ** policy changes." The changes were initiated after the hacking incident.**** ** ** The database categorizes U.S. dams by the number of people that would be**** killed if a dam fails. They include "significant" and "high" hazard levels.* *** ** ** Michelle Van Cleave, the former National Counterintelligence Executive, a*** * senior counterintelligence policymaker, said the database compromise**** highlights the danger posed by hackers who are targeting critical U.S.**** infrastructure for future attacks.**** ** ** "In the wrong hands, the Army Corps of Engineers' database could be a cyber* *** attack roadmap for a hostile state or terrorist group to disrupt power grids **** or target dams in this country," Van Cleave said in an email.**** ** ** "You may ask yourself, why would anyone want to do that? You could ask the** ** same question about why anyone would plant IEDs at the Boston Marathon."**** ** ** Van Cleave said the intrusion appears to be part of an effort to collect**** "vulnerability and targeting data" for future cyber or military attacks.**** ** ** "Alarm bells should be going off because we have next to no national**** security emergency preparedness planning in place to deal with contingencies **** like that," she said.**** ** ** Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, warned in a 2011* *** speech that cyber attacks were escalating from causing disruptions to actual **** destructive strikes, including cyber attacks on hydroelectric dams.**** ** ** Alexander provided what he said were indirect examples of two types of**** anticipated cyber attacks. The first was a cyber strike that could produce a **** cascading power failure like the August 2003 electrical power outage in the* *** Northeast United States caused by a tree falling on a high-voltage power**** line**** ** ** The second involved the catastrophic destruction of a water-driven**** electrical generator at Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, near the far**** eastern city of Cheremushki, in August 2009. One of the dam's 10**** 650-megawatt hydro turbine generators, weighing more than 1,000 tons, was*** * mistakenly started by a computer operator 500 miles away.**** ** ** As a result, the generator began spinning, rose 50 feet in the air, and**** exploded, killing 75 people and destroying eight of the remaining nine**** turbines at the dam.**** ** ** "That's our concern about what's coming in cyberspace-a destructive**** element," said Alexander in the September 2011 speech on cyberwarfare. He is **** also the director of the National Security Agency, the electronic spying**** agency.**** ** ** According to the Corps website, the dam inventory was created under a 1972** ** law and was updated in 1986 to require coordination between the Corps and*** * the Federal Emergency Management Agency.**** ** ** In 2002 and 2006 the law was updated further in recognition that dams are*** * part of critical U.S. infrastructure and require protection.**** ** ** Security analysts have said that critical infrastructure-electrical power*** * grids, financial networks, transportation controls, and industrial control** ** systems-are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attack because of computer**** networks used to run them.**** ** ** The security lapse highlights the Obama administration's failure to upgrade* *** cyber security and protect infrastructure despite a recent executive order** ** seeking to improve security.**** ** ** The dam database compromise also comes amid plans by the administration to** ** expand hydroelectric power in the Untied States, which is considered a**** "green" renewable energy source, by 15 percent through upgrading dams.**** ** ** The Energy Department said in a recent report that upgrading dams could**** produce 12 gigawatts of electricity without carbon emissions, Bloomberg**** reported recently.**** ** ** Energy officials analyzed 54,391 dams out of more than 80,000 dams that lack **** hydroelectric generators. Currently, some 2,500 dams produce hydroelectric** ** power.**** ** ** Increasing hydroelectric power would "help diversify our energy mix, create* *** jobs and reduce carbon pollution nationwide," Energy Secretary Steven Chu*** * said in a statement.**** ** ** President Barack Obama has set a goal of producing 80 percent of U.S.**** electrical power from so-called clean energy systems by 2035.**** ** ** The Energy Department report said that adding generators to existing dams*** * would be faster and less expensive than building new dams.**** ** ** Hydropower made up six percent of total U.S. electricity produced in 2011.** ** More than half of all hydroelectric power is produced in Washington, Oregon, **** and California.**** ** ** ==========================================**** (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. 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