A gas pipe in Siberia explodes after its computer control system malfunctions. Soviet spies had stolen the system from a Canadian firm, not knowing that the CIA, anticipating the theft, had altered the software to produce much higher pressures than a gas pipe's joints can handle....[More]
CIA-BAITED SOFTWARE:
June 1982
A gas pipe in Siberia explodes after its computer control system malfunctions. Soviet spies had stolen the system from a Canadian firm, not knowing that the CIA, anticipating the theft, had altered the software to produce much higher pressures than a gas pipe's joints can handle. The resulting blast and fire could be seen from space.
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Soviet stamp dedicated to the trans-Siberian pipeline. Owned and scanned into Wikipedia by Mariluna
RAW REVENGE:
February 28, 2000 to April 23, 2000
A disgruntled sewage plant employee uses stolen radio equipment to issue commands that release more than 757,000 liters of raw sewage into parks and rivers in Queensland, Australia....[More]
RAW REVENGE:
February 28, 2000 to April 23, 2000
A disgruntled sewage plant employee uses stolen radio equipment to issue commands that release more than 757,000 liters of raw sewage into parks and rivers in Queensland, Australia.
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Credit: A local waterway, the Maroochy River, in better times. By Michael Rogers, via Flickr
NUCLEAR PLANT SLAMMED:
January 25, 2003
The Slammer worm brings down safety monitoring systems at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant for almost five hours. ...[More]
NUCLEAR PLANT SLAMMED:
January 25, 2003
The Slammer worm brings down safety monitoring systems at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant for almost five hours. The worm bypasses the plant's digital firewalls by first infecting a Davis-Besse contractor's computer, spreading to Davis-Besse's corporate network, then connecting to the computers that control operations. Fortunately the plant was off-line at the time.
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High network traffic locks two cooling pumps at Alabama's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. Operators are forced to shut down the plant manually....[More]
NUCLEAR PUMPS FAIL:
August 19, 2006
High network traffic locks two cooling pumps at Alabama's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. Operators are forced to shut down the plant manually. A Government Accountability Office investigation found that hackers could enter power plant's internal computer network through its operator's corporate network. The corporate network's security software was not updated and didn't have anti-virus protection.
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission, via Wikipedia
TESTING THE GRID:
March 2007
Idaho National Laboratory researchers test a cyber attack against a replica of a power plant's control system. The experiment, called Aurora, destroys a generator, filling the replica plant with smoke and demonstrating how hackers could target the U.S....[More]
TESTING THE GRID:
March 2007
Idaho National Laboratory researchers test a cyber attack against a replica of a power plant's control system. The experiment, called Aurora, destroys a generator, filling the replica plant with smoke and demonstrating how hackers could target the U.S. power grid.
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Russian hackers use denial-of-service attacks to block access to Estonia's banks, government communications and major media websites after Estonian officials removed a Soviet memorial in Tallinn, the country's capital....[More]
ESTONIA UNDER SIEGE:
April 26, 2007 to May 18, 2007
Russian hackers use denial-of-service attacks to block access to Estonia's banks, government communications and major media websites after Estonian officials removed a Soviet memorial in Tallinn, the country's capital.
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The contested memorial before its removal. By LHOON, via Flickr
WORLDWIDE UTILITIES VULNERABLE:
January 16, 2007
A senior CIA analyst reveals that the agency knows of several successful cyberattacks on utilities companies outside of the U.S....[More]
WORLDWIDE UTILITIES VULNERABLE:
January 16, 2007
A senior CIA analyst reveals that the agency knows of several successful cyberattacks on utilities companies outside of the U.S. At least one attack cut power to multiple cities, which the CIA did not name.
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The Wall Street Journal reports spies from "China, Russia and other countries" have infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid, attempted to map it and left behind software that could be used to inflict damage....[More]
FOOTPRINTS IN U.S. GRID:
April 8, 2009
The Wall Street Journal reports spies from "China, Russia and other countries" have infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid, attempted to map it and left behind software that could be used to inflict damage. The paper reports that U.S. water, sewage and other infrastructure systems have also been targeted.
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The television newsmagazine 60 Minutes reports that hackers triggered two power outages in Brazil in 2005 and 2007. The latter outage affected three million people over two days....[More]
BRAZILIAN OUTAGE:
November 8, 2009
The television newsmagazine 60 Minutes reports that hackers triggered two power outages in Brazil in 2005 and 2007. The latter outage affected three million people over two days. Brazilian government investigators contested 60 Minutes' claims, saying the 2007 blackout was the result of poorly maintained insulators.
A 2009 blackout in Sao Paulo, Brazil. By Fernando Stankuns, via Flickr
SHARP TARGETING:
October 2010
Officials from Iran report that their nuclear facilities had been infected by Stuxnet, a piece of malware that targets industrial controls made by Siemens....[More]
SHARP TARGETING:
October 2010
Officials from Iran report that their nuclear facilities had been infected by Stuxnet, a piece of malware that targets industrial controls made by Siemens. The virus, which is designed to destroy the centrifuges needed to process uranium into weapons-grade material, is widely believed to have been deployed as a targeted attack on Iran's nuclear program.
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YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
Hate to harp on these types of articles (actually really do enjoy it) but: 1. Not one of these examples was a knock out of a grid. 2. Not clear that any of the power outages were really caused by hackers (60 Minutes isn't necessarily always right - see Meredith Whitney's Apocolyptic Predictions on Municipal Bond defaults). 3. What did the slideshow add to the "scientific aspect" of this article? A single article listing the assertions would have been more efficient. But I guess that "Popular Scientific American" feels we need shiny moving things to keep our attention. Regards, Jim
2. denverjims
in reply to denverjims05:09 PM 6/23/11
Almost forgot #7 wherein the CIA (and we can really trust those guys) said some unnamed hackers had at some unnamed time taken down a grid in some unnamed country. Honest, trust us! Very scientific... quant suff (with apologies to Alfred Bester)
I'm not saying that this threat is not real. I'm just saying this is more the kind of article I'd expect in Time or GQ magazines; not SA. I guess I'm just out of step with the times...
Another good reason why distributed generation (rooftop solar) should be promoted throughout the U.S.. Having several independent power sources (not dependent on the local utility) should eliminate or minimize this problem. Having "Feed in" sources of excess energy from several points of the grid (via consumers and small businesses using rooftop solar) will occur faster if the US encourages aggressive FIT's at the federal, state and local levels. Some states are waiving or lowering building permit fees for solar and freezing taxing for the first years. Ushering in the "electric vehicle age" using solar charging will also take the risk out of worrying about the local utility providing power for these vehicles. All the data centers I have seen already have at least 2 or more backup sources anyways (generator and UPS).
Blue-Green Acres
Full-size Unmanned Aircraft Flies on Hydrogen Fuel
Recycling Could Replace Mining for U.S. Iron Supply
3 Comments
Add CommentHate to harp on these types of articles (actually really do enjoy it) but:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Not one of these examples was a knock out of a grid.
2. Not clear that any of the power outages were really caused by hackers (60 Minutes isn't necessarily always right - see Meredith Whitney's Apocolyptic Predictions on Municipal Bond defaults).
3. What did the slideshow add to the "scientific aspect" of this article? A single article listing the assertions would have been more efficient. But I guess that "Popular Scientific American" feels we need shiny moving things to keep our attention.
Regards, Jim
Almost forgot #7 wherein the CIA (and we can really trust those guys) said some unnamed hackers had at some unnamed time taken down a grid in some unnamed country. Honest, trust us! Very scientific... quant suff (with apologies to Alfred Bester)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not saying that this threat is not real. I'm just saying this is more the kind of article I'd expect in Time or GQ magazines; not SA. I guess I'm just out of step with the times...
Another good reason why distributed generation (rooftop solar) should be promoted throughout the U.S.. Having several independent power sources (not dependent on the local utility) should eliminate or minimize this problem. Having "Feed in" sources of excess energy from several points of the grid (via consumers and small businesses using rooftop solar) will occur faster if the US encourages aggressive FIT's at the federal, state and local levels. Some states are waiving or lowering building permit fees for solar and freezing taxing for the first years. Ushering in the "electric vehicle age" using solar charging will also take the risk out of worrying about the local utility providing power for these vehicles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll the data centers I have seen already have at least 2 or more backup sources anyways (generator and UPS).