CIA Admits Cyberattacks Blacked Out Cities

[OhioChick]

Source: Information Week

The disclosure was made at a New Orleans security conference Friday attended by international government officials, engineers, and security managers.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
January 18, 2008 06:15 PM


The CIA on Friday admitted that cyberattacks have caused at least one power outage affecting multiple cities outside the United States.

Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, said that CIA senior analyst Tom Donahue confirmed that online attackers had caused at least one blackout. The disclosure was made at a New Orleans security conference Friday attended by international government officials, engineers, and security managers from North American energy companies and utilities.

Paller said that Donahue presented him with a written statement that read, "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."

Information about which foreign cities were affected by the outage and other information related to the attack was not mentioned and is unlikely to be forthcoming, said Paller.

A call to the CIA asking for further comment was not immediately returned.

Donahue said that the CIA had thoroughly weighed the pros and cons of making this information public, according to Paller.





Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901631&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

[DURHAM D]

1. If this is the Estonian thing doesn't everyone already know about it?

[Javaman]

13. One would think, considering it was a feature story in Wired magazine. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I think it was in Latvia, or Lithuania, or some place like that.

Edited, just as soon as I saw the previous post, made simultaneously.

Estonia, that was it.

[superconnected]

3. More propaganda to allow the US to screen all internet traffic.

Looks like the bush publicists sent out 3 news reports at once demanding this.

[crud76]

5. Uh huh

Ties right in with the McConnell piece in Information Week.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901409

[JBoy]

6. Zackly. n/t

[originalpckelly]

11. Very curious and possibly accurate conclusion.

I think the timing is a wee bit suspicious.

[crikkett]

16. Apparently there's a conference going on and someone's reporting on it.

Imagine how stories would have related topics...

[peacetalksforall]

4. Because they could? Because they were testing? Because they

were contracting? Makes you wonder if they outsourced it. Why pay our highly paid intelligence people when they could pay to have it done out of the hingerlands of Russia or on a little foreign island somewhere.

Makes you think/know that at some point if we keep going in the direction Cheney has brought us - we're not going to communicate with each other. O'Reilly will be giving instructions to we serfs accompanied by a Pentagon person who might be from Israel or the UK..

[hunter]

7. Be careful while using ffmpeg. I think I've probably caused a few blackouts.

I'm afraid to ask what damage Ava did:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7365439&mesg_id=7365439

[951-Riverside]

8. The CIA is in charge of internet/network security in the US?

:wtf:

Why is this any of their business?

[JBoy]

9. Geez, what kind of piece of crap internet did Al Gore invent, anyways.

:mad:

[originalpckelly]

10. I want to know why such vital infrastructure is connected to the internet.

It's got to be possible to segregate these networks and prevent access from the internet at the physical level.

[bemildred]

19. Duh. The real question is what fool allowed worldwide access to these systems.

:thumbsup:

[rayofreason]

12. We will see more of this in the future.

And they have been going on on a small scale for a while

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/weblog/2007/04/dos_extortion_is_no_longer_pro.html

[MadHound]

14. Or just another excuse to gain further control of the internet

This is the CIA, until I know the answers to which country and when, among a few other pertinent questions, I'm taking this with a huge grain of salt. Sounds more like booga-booga, more terror and fear. Look what's happened the past few years when that card's been played.

[noel adamson]

15. Who would think they would tolerate competition with the MSM propaganda machine...

...in an election year with Republicans so discredited and far down in the polls? Even another war and many phony terrorist threats will not be enough to win without plugging alternate channels of communication. They have not been making arrangements for totally stifling the internet for nothing and the trajectory of the time line of that assault so far points to a shut down in one form or another in time for the final run up to the election.

[lanlady]

17. CIA Admits Cyberattacks Blacked Out Cities

Source: Information Week

The CIA on Friday admitted that cyberattacks have caused at least one power outage affecting multiple cities outside the United States.

Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, said that CIA senior analyst Tom Donahue confirmed that online attackers had caused at least one blackout. The disclosure was made at a New Orleans security conference Friday attended by international government officials, engineers, and security managers from North American energy companies and utilities.

Paller said that Donahue presented him with a written statement that read, "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."

Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901631

[paparush]

18. Goodbye Internet..its been a fun run.

The board is set and the pieces are in motion for this misAdministration to lead a successful campaign to restrict, limit, and completely monitor American's internet life.

[Heywood J]

20. I'll say it again.

Why are mission-critical applications connected to the public Internet? Be it national defense systems like the Pentagon's, critical power utility computers, or databases that hold medical and credit records - none of this should ever be directly connected to the public, EVER. If you have need for connection between sites, hire out some dark fiber or a private leased line that your equipment (and only your equipment) connects to.

This is an inevitable result of trying to cheap out on communications costs by using a public network. No matter how good your encryption is on the front door, someone will be better at hacking another door open through what you thought was a solid wall. Whether it's the Chinese military or someone doing it for the extortion money just depends on who won the coin toss that day.

[gateley]

21. I AUTOMATICALLY assume that the CIA is the "cyber attacker" and they're

using this so that when they do it to the U.S. they can point back to that perpetrator or cry "terrorism".

Great way to stun the masses AND restrict the internet.

I hope I'm just :tinfoilhat:

[Supersedeas]

22. keeping the public in the dark -- another Bushist legacy