Cyberspies have Penetrated US Electrical Grid: Report

[debbierlus]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls, the newspaper said, citing current and former U.S. national security officials.

The intruders have not sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure but officials said they could try during a crisis or war, the paper said in a report on its website.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," a senior intelligence official told the Journal. "So have the Russians."

The espionage appeared pervasive across the United States and does not target a particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090408/us_nm/us_cyberattack_usa

---

Just lovely.

[Democracyinkind]

Sounds fishy, I'm not buying it.

Reminds me of the other cyberspies, who allegedly come from Russia and China, but are commonly referred to as "contracted company work" - whatever that means.

[Ian David]

1. They did this during The Bush Administration. When Dubya was supposedly "keeping us safe." n/t

[Ilsa]

2. Yikes. This is scary shit, IMO. Another example of W and Dickless not

keeping us safe. I'm sure Dickless is excited over the prospect of finding some hackers to waterboard.

[empyreanisles]

3. How did they get in? I would assume these systems are not on the Internet

, but in private intranets. And I don't mean VPNs, but physically separate communication links.

I could be wrong.

[notadmblnd]

11. My guess? Offshoring Tech jobs

[FarCenter]

17. It's hard to keep networks separate

Internet Protocol is used in both the public Internet and in lots of intranets.

But people get sloppy, and once someone ties two networks together accidentally, intruders can use the connection to go from one to another.

A partial solution would be to require that SCADA networks not use the Internet Protocol, so that bridging could not occur. That would preclude accidental bridging, although it would not prevent all attacks via compromised servers that might be used as relays.

People have been working on critical infrastructure security for at least 10 years. Since any computer that can be accessed from the internet is more or less continuously under attack, it can't be new.

Wonder why this issue is being brought up at this time?

[empyreanisles]

23. It's true. All it takes is someone with access to the private network

...putting his computer on the Internet somehow. For instance, maybe he leaves a remote desktop application running that connects him to the power grid; while also having that computer on the regular Internet for other purposes.

[Adelante]

4. Also see video with Richard Clarke

Attached to article.

[xchrom]

5. another bush failure. nt

[MannyGoldstein]

6. I've Actually Helped Develop Networked Power Grid Equipment

And we should all be very concerned. A couple of trivial human errors and the power grid will be controllable over the Internet.

Our government should be deeply involved in securing this.

[SnowGoose]

7. Another good argument for decentralization

Such an attack would be much less disruptive if half the people had a solar panel on the roof.

[Phred42]

8. The Grid must go

The ‘Grid’ is 19th Century technology. It is an antiquated dinosaur and an expensive inefficient danger to National Security. Power sources must implemented that are decentralized and local.

[L0oniX]

9. Let's just turn over our government to Micro Shit and be done with it.

[hunter]

10. If the U.S. ever has to cut off internet access at the border...

... this makes a wonderful cover story.

"Evil people overseas were trying to cut off our electricity using the internet!!! Oh no!!!"

Bah.

Mapping out the electrical grid is kid's play, and the grid is fragile. There are probably quite a few 17 year old domestic nerd "terrorists" who have some effective ideas about taking large chunks of the grid down, both low tech and high tech. But they don't, mostly because it's on exactly the same scale of murderous stupid as starting a brush fire in Southern California during the Santa Ana winds. Nobody ever says Chinese or Russian or Islamic terrorists are starting deadly brush fires, do they? Those sorts of terrorists always turn out to be our own home grown psychopaths.

The electrical grid is fragile enough that some really stupid stuff can take it down. A squirrel can crawl into a hole, chew on some wires, and black out a city. Fix those problems, toughen up the communications a bit, and increase the stability of the system so that small failures don't become huge ones, and any "terrorists" will go elsewhere like burglars looking for an unlocked door on a house with no dogs.

[OhioChick]

12. Report says spies compromised US electric grid

Source: AP

20 minutes ago

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Spies hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind mechanisms for them to disrupt service, according to a newspaper report Wednesday that renewed questions about the security of key pieces of national infrastructure.

The report in the Wall Street Journal said that the intruders have not yet sought to damage the nation's electric grid, but that they could try in a war or some other crisis.

Government officials declined to comment on the report.

Congressional investigators and intelligence officials have warned before that electric utilities are vulnerable to cyber attacks. CIA analyst Tom Donahue told utility engineers at a conference last year that in other countries, hackers had broken into electric utilities and demanded payments before disrupting power — in one case turning off the lights in multiple cities.

Stewart Baker, the former assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department, said Wednesday that electric grids have been hacked for years, and that he would not be surprised if China, Russia and other countries had taken part.

"We were certainly aware that there were intrusions into the electrical grid," said Baker, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTamvV9J8BmeVmQift2odb--mBigD97EDNPO1

[Deja Q]

13. Oh. Goody. Why aren't power plants on a dedicated network instead of latching on the Internet?

Then somebody would have to be physically in the United States to spy.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. Yet another good reason to go solar

and to have backup plans. I live in tornado/ice storm country, so I could have a major power outage any time during the year, and have planned accordingly.

You suppose it is stuff like this that has made Obama wanting to keep up the wiretaps?

[shadowknows69]

15. Where's Dick Cheney today?

[ConcernedCanuk]

18. Damm good question - I think you should start a thread on that

.
.
.

Most of the War Criminal government ya had down there for the last 8 years just sort of faded off into the shadows.

But we all know that the BFEE and the PNAC gang are still pulling the strings and pushing the buttons -

DON'T WE???

I friggin hope so

stay awake

please?

[Brother Buzz]

16. One event occurred on July 13, 1998

One event occurred earlier. On July 13, 1998, employees of one of the two power-marketing centers in California watched incredulously as the wholesale price of $1 a megawatt hour spiked to $9,999, stayed at that price for four hours, then dropped to a penny. Someone was testing the system to find the limits of market exploitation. This incident was the earliest indication that the people and the state could become victims of fraud. The Sacramento Bee broke the story three years later, on May 6, 2001.

Guess what? They hacked the system using software designed and sold by Ross Perot. My bet is these 'spies' are the local variety.

http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htm

[hunter]

24. ROFL

"Stewart Baker, the former assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department, said Wednesday that electric grids have been hacked for years, and that he would not be surprised if China, Russia and other countries had taken part."

So what was homeland security doing about it? The usual looting of our economy, I suppose, and I would not be surprised if China, Russia and other countries had taken part in Homeland Security's notorious barnyard animal sex orgies too.

This story has all the depth of spit on a sidewalk.

What are we all supposed to be afraid of? Fix the damned problem and move on. The power companies have engineers who do this sort of work, right? If they can spend several weeks putting spikes and razor wire on the high voltage transmission towers where I live just so stupid kids don't climb them, then I'm sure they can devote a similar effort to network security.

WOOwoowooo..... China... Russia ...... BOO!

[Omaha Steve]

19. AP source: Spies compromised US electric grid

Source: AP

By JORDAN ROBERTSON and EILEEN SULLIVAN

AN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Spies hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service, exposing potentially catastrophic vulnerabilities in key pieces of national infrastructure, The Associated Press has learned.

The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems, a former U.S. government official told the AP. The ex-official was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The inspections of the electric grid were triggered by fears over a March 2007 video from the Idaho National Laboratory, which had staged a demonstration of what damage hackers could do if they seized control of a crucial part of the electric grid. The video showed a power turbine spinning out of control until it became a smoking hulk and shut down.

Although the resulting audits turned up evidence of spying, the former official told the AP that the extent of the problem is unknown, because the government does not have blanket authority to examine other electric systems.


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTamvV9J8BmeVmQift2odb--mBigD97EHMJO0

[amyrose2712]

20. Isn't that Glen Beck was screaming about

[merwin]

22. Wasn't that the whole plot of the latest Die Hard movie?

[2Design]

21. surprise surprise - they have seen what we do to ourselves

with broken wires, bridges and other infrastructures - and the republicans have not desire to fix those things but instead want to spend money on church, wall street, bogus values, bullets, killing, bombs, etc.