Hiroshima, 2.0

[Onkel Neal]

"People aren't aware that everything has changed."

type the words "Cyber attack" and "generator" into YouTube. The first result should be a short clip from the Department of Homeland Security, leaked to CNN a couple of years ago, showing an electric generator under a simulated cyberattack at the Idaho National Laboratory. Within seconds the generator begins to shake violently. Within a minute, it's up in smoke.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966785804815355.html

[Skybird]

This is one of the fields were the Chinese' power easily can turn from "soft" to "hard" with us even being unable to point fingers at them. It's a kind of combat that bypasses the ordinary "line" military completele, and it is the next logical step on the ladder of guerilla- and urban warfare-evolution.

A green politician in some interview last year was asked about such threats. His smiling reply was "But who would even wish to do that to us?"

Problem solved!


Als der Zirkus in Flammen stand
ist auch ein Vogelstrauss verbrannt,
denn der gute Vogel tauchte
als sein Hinterteil schon rauchte
seinen Kopf standhaft in den Sand,
hehehehehe!

(Georg Kreisler)

[Schroeder]

Oh yes, the greens....
Boy and I even voted for them a few years back.

[Oberon]

Ah yes, the new war. This kind of thing has been coming since the birth of the net and the increasing technological intergration.

[AVGWarhawk]

Conficker.

[SteamWake]

Looks like someone defeated the overcurrent device on that generator. If it had been working properly it never would have smoked the genset windings.

Pretty spectacular stuff but there is something wrong with that video. I cannot forsee any kind of force that could be applied to a generator that would make it jump like that short of an explosion or earthquake. Ive even witnessed "arc flash" experiments where a 'bolted fault' (short circuit) was applied to a generator of about that size, it dident jump, it dident 'shake', it 'sagged' or bogged down for about 10 cycles (1/6th of a second) and shut itself down. But that bolted fault (a large switch) went up in a huge flash, bang, and puff of smoke.

Id like to consider myself an 'expert' when it comes to power generation distribution and control, its what I do for a living.

Not to dismiss the concearn, the grid could be overwhelmed and shut down but your not going to see generators exploding. Besides generators are (with some excpetions) a standby power source and are in no way connected to the grid. They are physically isolated by a transfer switch.

The generators that you get power from when you plug in your toaaster are very different animals.

[NeonSamurai]

I'm fairly certain weapon systems wouldn't be vulnerable either, as they are not connected to the internet. Nukes in particular are absolutely not connected to the internet, and the military uses its own private and heavily encrypted network(s) in combat. I'm also pretty sure that weapons when they are being manufactured are never hooked up to the internet either at any point.

Most of that article is nothing more then scare mongering. The amount of havoc that can be caused is in fact fairly limited. The private sector does become a bit more worrisome as then you may be able cause some damage (assuming the company is stupid enough to attach a critical system to the internet that can be controlled).

[Skybird]

Zweckoptimismus. If your strongest tool is a military, then you tend to ignore your vulnerablities in other sectors the military is ill-suited to protect. Maybe that military can bring exlosive damage to the other, then - but of what use is it for defending your own home and civil structure? The price for a war today is not measured in blood only, but also in economic damage, and any ethical aergument pro or contra a war is simply outclassed by economical arguments for or against wars. Since years I argue that here is the wide open, sore archilles heel of the West in general and the US in special. And the Chinese have focussed on that since a long time, with regard to their financial policies, economic policies and trade and allying diplomacy with the third world - and now their cyber warfare possibilities as well. Only fools could think that the only way to measure a country's power is bombs, tanks, planes and cruisers only. That simply is extremely short-sigthed.

[SteamWake]

I forgot to add a link for the arc flash.



Mmmm toasty, treat electricity with respect people !


By the way. I also wanted to mention that the headline of that article while attention grabbing is to me unconscionable and belitttles the signigance of that event.

If the power grid were to be disrupted, even catastrophacally, people wouldent be dying for years from radiation sickness.

Sure there would be chaos panic even mayhem and death. Hell remember Katrina? But I dont see the kind of sudden and prolonged loss of life that Hiroshima suffered.

The power grid would eventually be repaired eventually but the econmic and psychological impact would be hard to imagine.

[TarJak]

Why go to all that trouble when you can cause far more mayhem with a backhoe?
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/bre...0331-9hcx.html

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...-29277,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...006009,00.html

3 significant blackouts in the Sydney CBD in a week caused by a cable damaged during works anything up to 20 years before:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...15/2543559.htm

[lorcan3]

can someone help me? I need to download a file that will extract all .rar files that I downloaded for SH3.

[Schroeder]

Slightly wrong thread isn't it?
Try google for 7Zip or Power Archiver.