Cyberattacks on critical US infrastructure keep happening. How worried should we be?
Category: News & Politics
Via: krishna • 4 weeks ago • 12 commentsBy: Will Carless and Michael Loria
Photo credit: USA Today
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S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A wicked storm knocks out the largest gasoline pipeline in the country, stretching from Texas to New York. Nearly 17,000 gas stations go dry, turning pit stops into parking lots as panicked Americans try to fuel up before attendants tape off yet another empty pump.
It’s a familiar tale of infrastructure buckling under extreme weather, but this storm blew in from the east without a drop of water or a gust of wind when Russian hackers crippled the Colonial Gas Pipeline.
The 2021 Colonial attack, which affected nearly half of all fuel consumed on the East Coast, was just a taste of things to come, U.S. cyberwarriors say, as foreign governments and gangs working under their protection steal into the nervous system of the American economy, ready to shut it down in the event of a conflict.
“It’s a free-for-all,” said Colin P. Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence consultancy. “It's a constant barrage and assault of various types of hacking attempts, offensive cyber operations and others that are trying to go after the public sector, the private sector, and everything in between.”
Earlier this year, Chinese hackers breached Verizon, AT&T and other telecoms in an effort to understand how the companies cooperate with authorities to track criminals, officials suspect.
Recent months have seen a steady drumbeat of high-profile cyberattacks. While most have created only minor distractions, the incursions have become more brazen, experts say.
Just as foreign countries have their cyber spies and software inside America’s critical infrastructure, American hackers and security agencies have not been idle, said Jim Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
An EPA review this year found that 70% of U.S. water companies were vulnerable to attack.
Why are we not talking about this more?” Adante said. “I worry about the critical infrastructure event, where there's an attack on power grids, water systems – where human lives are at stake.”
Authorities still haven’t identified who was behind the American Water breach, which comes as foreign hackers increasingly go after private, rather than government, targets.
While hacking is as old as the internet itself, the contest has evolved into a key front, Clarke said. “It's just another theater, that's the way I look at it,” he said. “There's air, land, sea, space and cyber.”
That cyber front is heating up.
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It’s a familiar tale of infrastructure buckling under extreme weather, but this storm blew in from the east without a drop of water or a gust of wind when Russian hackers crippled the Colonial Gas Pipeline.
The 2021 Colonial attack, which affected nearly half of all fuel consumed on the East Coast, was just a taste of things to come, U.S. cyberwarriors say, as foreign governments and gangs working under their protection steal into the nervous system of the American economy, ready to shut it down in the event of a conflict.
As many benefits computers and internet have brought us, that is probably balanced by the detriment and dangers because of them.
Computers were supposed to be a labor saving device. Since I've had them they've given me nothing but problems!
And lately it's become even worse-- these infernal machines are now making it easy to spy on me!!!
You ain't seen nothin' yet - you should try using MY computer that turns itself off by itself when I'm in the middle of preparing something to post and wipes it all away.
Wow-- you have a very intelligent computer!
(Is that what people mean when they are refer to "Artificial Intelligence"?)
I kicked the shit out of my previous one, and this one's got to be masochistic, and as soon as I can get a new one I'm going to kick the shit out of this one too.
Recent months have seen a steady drumbeat of high-profile cyberattacks. While most have created only minor distractions, the incursions have become more brazen, experts say.
Just as foreign countries have their cyber spies and software inside America’s critical infrastructure, American hackers and security agencies have not been idle, said Jim Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
An EPA review this year found that 70% of U.S. water companies were vulnerable to attack.
Authorities still haven’t identified who was behind the American Water breach, which comes as foreign hackers increasingly go after private, rather than government, targets.
Why are we not talking about this more?” Adante said. “I worry about the critical infrastructure event, where there's an attack on power grids, water systems – where human lives are at stake.”
I cannot count the number of times I have posted on NT my wish for Scotty to beam me back to the early 1950s before we had computers, and back then we had journalists and broadcasters who could be trusted, like Walter Cronkite, and an award was given out to the most unbiased newspaper, an award you will never see presented today. People back then didn't have to lock their home and car doors, and gun violence was very rare. Young kids could play outside, could go anywhere from dawn to dusk without anyone having to keep an eye on them. In the 1940s I even went into the woods or ravine entirely alone when I was a little kid, and nothing happened to me. People were safe back then.
Things certainly have changed..and mostly its not for the better!
I was fairly young at the time but I still remember those days . . .