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Kizzume
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Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 2787
Location: Tacoma, WA USA
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 Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:50 pm Post subject: CIA Says Hackers Have Cut Power Grid |
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http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141564-c,hackers/article.html
| Quote: | Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks on utility systems and extortion demands.
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Saturday, January 19, 2008 6:00 AM PST
Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week.
Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong.
Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.
"We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands," he said in a statement posted to the Web on Friday by the conference's organizers, the SANS Institute. "In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."
"According to Mr. Donahue, the CIA actively and thoroughly considered the benefits and risks of making this information public, and came down on the side of disclosure," SANS said in the statement. |
This is kind-of scary that this sort of thing is even possible. It almost seems like a strange sci-fi movie or something. I just didn't think something like that could be done--how are people doing it?
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