Censorship, Cybersecurity

ww3 cyber?

Utilities and Industries Face Rising Number of Cyber Break-Ins, DHS Says



U.S. utilities and industries face a rising number of cyber break-ins by attackers using more sophisticated methods, a senior Homeland Security Department official said during the government's first media tour of secretive defense labs intended to protect the U.S. power grid, water systems and other vulnerable infrastructure.

Acting DHS Deputy Undersecretary Greg Schaffer told reporters Thursday that the world's utilities and industries increasingly are becoming vulnerable as they wire their industrial machinery to the Internet.

"We are connecting equipment that has never been connected before to these global networks," Schaffer said. Disgruntled employees, hackers and perhaps foreign governments "are knocking on the doors of these systems, and there have been intrusions."

According to the DHS, Control System Security Program cyber experts based at the Idaho National Laboratory responded to 116 requests for assistance in 2010, and 342 so far this year.

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In a 2007 test at the Idaho National Laboratory, government hackers were able to break into the control system running a large diesel generator, causing it to self-destruct.

A video of the test, called Aurora, still posted on YouTube, shows parts flying off the generator as it shakes, shudders and finally halts in a cloud of smoke.

James Lewis, a former State Department official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an interview that the Aurora test ushered in a new era of electronic warfare.

Before the test, he said, the notion of cyber warfare "was mainly smoke and mirrors. But the Aurora tests showed that, you know what? We have a new kind of weapon."

Homeland Security officials said they have not conducted such a test on that scale since. But they demonstrated Thursday how a hacker could tunnel under firewalls in computer systems to take command of industrial processes.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/29/dhs-says-utilities-and-industries-face-rising-number-cyber-break-ins/#ixzz1ZS9JIVLF

the next crisis...it's even been tested.

Pentagon: Cyber offense part of U.S. strategy

The Pentagon is prepared to launch cyberattacks in response to hostile actions that threaten the government, military or U.S. economy, according to a new policy document submitted to Congress this week.

The report, obtained by The Washington Post, is the most detailed document so far from the government on its emerging cyberwarfare program, and it warns that adversaries attempting cyberattacks against the United States “would be taking a grave risk.”

Yet it remains silent on a number of important issues, such as rules of engagement outside designated battle zones and whether neutral countries would be consulted before their systems were used to carry out counterattacks in cyberspace. The report does not discuss the advisability of demonstrating cybercapabilities.

The report is more explicit than the Pentagon’s cyberstrategy released in July, which focused on the importance of deterring attacks by building defenses that would “deny” adversaries the benefits of success. In the latest report, the Pentagon states directly that it “has the capability to conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our nation, allies and interests.”

When defense-based deterrence fails to stop a hostile act, the report says, the Pentagon “maintains, and is further developing, the ability to respond militarily in cyberspace and in other domains.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/pentagon-cyber-offense-part-of-us-strategy/2011/11/15/gIQArEAlPN_story.html

Cyber-security of continent's power grid 'chaotic,' report warns


The cyber-security of the North American power grid is "in a state of near chaos," according to a report by a respected U.S. energy consultancy monitoring the industry's transition to wireless digital technologies.


The white paper by Pike Research reveals that a $60 smart phone application can bypass security measures and allow direct communications between the phone and some control systems (ICS) that regulate breakers, relays, feeders and the flow of electricity.


The news comes on the heels of a warning from the cyber-security arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the hacker collective known as Anonymous appears intent on exploiting the ICS vulnerabilities within the energy industry.


In an unclassified October bulletin obtained by the website Public Intelligence, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center believes the group has, "a limited ability to conduct attacks against ICS. However . . . Anonymous could be able to develop capabilities to trespass on control system networks very quickly."



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Cyber+security+continent+power+grid+chaotic+report+warns/5715673/story.html#ixzz1dsEeU2QS

these last two posts are telling.

"The white paper by Pike Research reveals that a $60 smart phone application can bypass security measures and allow direct communications between the phone and some control systems (ICS) that regulate breakers, relays, feeders and the flow of electricity."

!!!

Pakistan bans 'obscene' words on cell phone texts

Texters in Pakistan better start watching their language.

Pakistan's telecommunications authority sent a letter ordering cell phone companies to block text messages containing what it perceives to be obscenities, Anjum Nida Rahman, a spokeswoman for Telenor Pakistan, said Friday.

It also sent a list of more than 1,500 English and Urdu words that were to be blocked.

The order was part of the regulator's attempt to block spam messages, said Rahman. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority refused to comment on the initiative.

Many of the words to be blocked were sexually explicit terms or swear words, according to a copy of the list obtained by The Associated Press.

It also included relatively mild terms like fart and idiot.

The reasons for blocking some words, including Jesus Christ, headlights and tampon, were less clear, raising questions about religious freedom and practicality. Any word could conceivably be part of a spam message.

The letter, which was also obtained by the AP, was dated Nov. 14 and gave cell phone companies seven days to implement the order.

Rahman, the Telenor spokeswoman, said her company first received the letter Thursday and was discussing how to proceed.

"It's a big issue, so it is being examined carefully from all points of view," said Rahman.

The letter said the order was legal under a 1996 law preventing people from sending information through the telecommunications system that is "false, fabricated, indecent or obscene."

It also stated that free speech can be restricted "in the interest of the glory of Islam."

Under pressure from Islamists, Pakistan has blocked pornographic websites and ones deemed anti-Islamic. Last year, it temporarily banned Facebook because of material on the site deemed offensive to Islam.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g76TLMCX6mcczXlKCpN4PsSOMsOw?docId=85fc1f71b4384021bba16ffc88aa69ab

It isnt that they are banning the words that stuns me, it is that they have the capability to read each text. Seeker posted on something similar in regards to facial recognition. There is no privacy...period.

thats the pertinent point..who is reading it or listening?

U.S. power grid is a big, soft target for cyberattack, MIT study shows

The "malicious attack from Russian hackers that cracked security on an Illinois water utility and destroyed one of its main pumps turned out to be what Wired called a "comedy of errors" after interviewing the prime suspect for a story that ran last week.

That doesn't mean utilities in the U.S. – especially electrical utilities – are not desperately vulnerable to attack.

The U.S. electrical grid in particular is not only just as vulnerable as it was before the risk of cyberattack became obvious, the negative impact of a real hack keeps rising, according to a two-year study published today by researchers at the MIT Energy Initiative in Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

U.S. utilities are building more intelligence into their networks to make power distribution more efficient, but the mesh of regulations and regulators involved is such that their security efforts are incomplete, inadequate and uncoordinated, according to the 268-page study (PDF of full report, or by section), which also examined risks from weather, the impact of federal regulations, rising prices for fossil fuels and competition from sources of renewable energy.

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One big problem: there isn't one agency in charge of security regulation for the whole national grid, according to the two leading researchers on the MIT report, John G. Kassakian, provessor of electrical engineering and computer science and Richard Schmalensee, a professor of economics and management.

Right now responsibility for physical and digital security is split between the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) in Atlanta and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Another big problem: Regulations aren't tight enough to balance the level of actual threat, and may not any time soon, according to the MIT study led by John G. Kassakian, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Richard Schmalensee, a professor of economics and management.

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Current risks of cyberattack on electric utilities

•Loss of grid control resulting in complete disruption of electricity supply over a wide area can occur as a result of errors or tampering with data communication among control equipment and central offices.
•Consumer-level problems ranging from incorrect billing to interruption in electric service can be introduced via smart meter tampering.
•Commuting disruptions for electric vehicle operators can occur if recharging stations have been modified to incorrectly charge batteries.
•Data confidentiality breaches, both personal and corporate, can provide information for identity theft, corporate espionage, physical security threats (for example, through knowing which homes are vacant), and terrorist activities (for example, through knowing which power lines are most important in electric distribution).

– Future of the Electric Grid, MIT Energy Initiative, Dec. 5, 2011
http://www.itworld.com/security/230469/us-power-grid-big-soft-target-cyberattack-mit-study-shows

well, there ya have it, whose to blame, what can happen, I guess they will keep this in their back pocket until needed.

This is an article from June 2010. did you hear something new about it?
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/nsw-government-recording-features-for-facial-recognition/story-e6freuzr-1225874819392

THE New South Wales Government is quietly compiling a mathematical map of almost every adult's face, sharing information that allows law enforcement to track people by CCTV.
Experts said yesterday few people realised their facial features were being recorded in an RTA database of drivers licence photos that the Government has allowed both state and federal police to access,

no i didnt and i should have!..will check that out

Here we have more of it, this time out of Japan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2119386/Could-governments-recognise-ANYONE-instantly-CCTV-Japanese-camera-scan-36-million-faces-second.html

Biometric camera stores details of everyone who walks past it
Stores 'library' of face info
Can scan through 36 million faces per second searching for people
Will be on sale to governments within next year


Off course these 36 million is to see relative... it would scan the whole world in a few minutes

the technology is staggering..

Here Are the 61 Organizations With Permission To Fly Drones
http://gizmodo.com/5904723/here-are-the-61-organizations-with-permission-to-fly-drones

adding that to a post thanks

Internet Hacking Drives Up Pentagon Costs
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article/PrintArticle.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_02_06_2012_p30-419987.xml&p=1&printView=true

How much of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's spiraling cost in recent years can be traced to China's cybertheft of technology and the subsequent need to reduce the fifth-generation aircraft's vulnerability to detection and electronic attack?