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| Science & Technology |
| DHS Deploys Special Teams to Battle Hackers in Cyber War for Infrastructure |
| 2010-08-05 |
| Just hours before reports emerged that hackers were for the first time attempting to take over specific infrastructure plants, a former CIA director told ABC News that weaknesses in critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. were among the country's greatest threats to national security. Just hours before reports emerged that hackers were for the first time attempting to take over specific infrastructure plants, a former CIA director told ABC News that weaknesses in critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. were among the country's greatest threats to national security. "One of [the greatest threats] is the vulnerability of our electricity grid to hacking and to physical attack on things like transformers," former CIA Director John Woolsey said Tuesday. "We have 18 critical infrastructures in the United States: water, food, sewage, etc. All of the 17 others depend on the electrical grid. "So the vulnerability of that grid to things like hacking is a very serious problem," he said. The same day, officials at the Department of Homeland Security confirmed a report by The Associated Press that last month hackers targeted critical infrastructure systems with malicious computer code. While it is hardly the first time hackers have attempted to gain access to infrastructure systems, experts said it was first time they employed a certain type of "worm," called Stuxnet, that was created to seize complete control of a specific critical infrastructure location. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 Of course, by "hackers", they mean websites like Free Republic, the National Rifle Association, Brietbart.com, etc. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-08-05 10:15 |
| #1 More likely the worm found it's own way onto these systems and they used it to highlight their desire for more funds. The answer is the same as BSG. Don't network together critical systems. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-08-05 07:59 |