Massive Power Outages In Brazil Caused By Hackers 462
Hugh Pickens writes "CBS reports on 60 minutes that a massive two-day power outage in Brazil's Espirito Santo State affecting more than three million people in 2007, and another, smaller event in three cities north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005, were perpetrated by hackers manipulating control systems. Former Chief of US National Intelligence Retired Adm. Mike McConnell says that the 'United States is not prepared for such an attack' and believes it could happen in America. 'If I were an attacker and wanted to do strategic damage to the United States, I would either take the cold of winter or the heat of summer,' says McConnell, 'I would probably sack electric power on the US East Coast, maybe the West Coast and attempt to cause a cascading effect.' Congressman Jim Langevin says that US power companies need to be forced to deal with the issue after they told Congress they would take steps to defend their operations but did not follow up. 'They admit that they misled Congress. The private sector has different priorities than we do in providing security. Their bottom line is about profits,' says Langevin. 'We need to change their motivation so that when see vulnerability like this, we can require them to fix it.' McConnell adds that a similar attack to the one in Brazil is poised to take place on US soil and that it may take some horrific event to get the country focused on shoring up cyber security. 'If the power grid was taken off line in the middle of winter and it caused people to suffer and die, that would galvanize the nation. I hope we don't get there.'"
Re:guess what's next ? (Score:3, Funny)
Can you guys dream about Canadian currency being valued at 50% when we export and 500% when we import?
Thanks in advance.
Re:Your official guide to the Jigaboo presidency (Score:2, Funny)
Are you suggesting censorship? I think the current modding system does the trick in most cases, but if you'd like I'm sure a slashdot.cn can be arranged.
Re:Hit'em in their wallets (Score:2, Funny)
Thats crazy talk. Here is the solution:
1) It's government regulation that is the problem. If the government would just loosen the regulations a little the power companies would be able to make more money. Then they could spend that money on other things like security, safety, and protecting the environment.
2) We should allow power companies to join the RIAA. Once hackers know they will face life imprisonment for copy right infringement, they will too scared to do anything. While we are at it, why not just give every industrial union (yes that what they are, corporate unions that hassle the government) the power to fuck over the average citizen.
3) As an added bonus, we can pass laws demanding to know what people have plugged into their wall sockets, you know ..... to ahh ...... watch for hackers! This of course only applies to peoples homes (and by people I mean non-rich people), applying this to businesses would make it harder for them to compete.
4) Profit!
Can I get my Republican kickbacks now?
Liberals (Score:5, Funny)
I haven't been modded troll or flamebait in a long time, just thought I'd try it out.
Re:Security (Score:3, Funny)
wreak havoc on the airport as all bags get re-routed to who knows where.
Is that not standard airline practice?
Hell the bags might end up at the right place for once.....
Re:Security (Score:3, Funny)
Hehe... Back when I was in the Air Force, we had a squirrel shut down the entire base for 8 hours. S/he crawled into the main power station, and committed suicide across the breakers, blowing up a good chunk of the station and about 100' of main feeder line.
Today no doubt the press would have whipped up frenzy about a "possible terrorist attack" with artistic renderings of the squirrel in mufti....
and the attack stopped (Score:5, Funny)
just because the hacker didn't have an UPS...
Re:Like we'd respond that well (Score:4, Funny)
"RIAA/MPAA sleezeballs capitalizing on it in ways I don't even want to contemplate."
When you install photoelectric panels, you're BURNING our fossil fuel industry!
Passive home heating is like passive smoking: IT KILLS! Insist on genuine 2000 Megawatt active air conditioning from a certified generation station.
You wouldn't steal a car... so why build a windmill? Just because all your friends are doing it doesn't make it right!
Firewood is BOLSHEVISM!
Re:Otherwise summarized as: (Score:5, Funny)
Unsecure infrastructure networks vulnerable to internet based attack.
Movie at 10.
Movie Postponed due to power failure.
Re:Good luck with that (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Security (Score:2, Funny)