Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




CYBER WARS
Foreign cyber attack hits US infrastructure: expert
by Staff Writers
San Francisco (AFP) Nov 18, 2011


A cyber strike launched from outside the United States hit a public water system in the Midwestern state of Illinois, an infrastructure control systems expert said on Friday.

"This is arguably the first case where we have had a hack of critical infrastructure from outside the United States that caused damage," Applied Control Solutions managing partner Joseph Weiss told AFP.

"That is what is so big about this," he continued. "They could have done anything because they had access to the master station."

The Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center disclosed the cyber assault on a public water facility outside the city of Springfield last week but attackers gained access to the system months earlier, Weiss said.

The network breach was exposed after cyber intruders burned out a pump.

"No one realized the hackers were in there until they started turning on and off the pump," according to Weiss.

The attack was reportedly traced to a computer in Russia and took advantage of account passwords stolen during a hack of a US company that makes Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software.

There are about a dozen or so firms that make SCADA software, which is used around the world to control machines in industrial facilities ranging from factories and oil rigs to nuclear power and sewage plants.

Stealing passwords and account names from a SCADA software company was, in essence, swiping keys to networks of facilities using the programs to control operations.

"We don't know how many other SCADA systems have been compromised because they don't really have cyber forensics," said Weiss, who is based in California.

The US Department of Homeland Security has downplayed the Illinois cyber attack in public reports, stating that it had seen no evidence indicating a threat to public safety but was investigating the situation.

Word also circulated on Friday that a water supply network in Texas might have been breached in a cyber attack, according to McAfee Labs security research director David Marcus.

"My gut tells me that there is greater targeting and wider compromise than we know about," Marcus said in a blog post.

"Does this mean that I think it is cyber-Armageddon time?" Marcus continued. "No, but it is certainly prudent to evaluate our systems and ask some questions."

.


Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








CYBER WARS
Finland facing large-scale hacking attacks: police
Helsinki (AFP) Nov 15, 2011
Finland is being targeted by a cyber activism campaign, police acknowledged Tuesday, after an apparent local branch of online "hacktivist" group Anonymous said it had hacked some 500,000 email accounts. "It's beginning to look like a campaign," Timo Piiroinen of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation told AFP. A group calling itself Anonymous Finland has claimed responsibility for a ... read more


CYBER WARS
LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon

Mystery of the Lunar Ionosphere

Ancient Lunar Dynamo May Explain Magnetized Moon Rocks

Ancient Lunar Dynamo May Explain Magnetized Moon Rocks

CYBER WARS
'Frustration' in Europe over joint Mars probe: NASA

NASA readies launch of 'dream machine' to Mars

Contact with Russian Mars probe 'unlikely' - expert

Mars explorers will include women, experts say

CYBER WARS
Weightless US teachers eye giant science leap

Allianz and International Space Transport Association partner in space tourism industry

US honors astronauts for pioneering space flights

Raytheon and Petrofac Partner to Provide Water Survival Training at NASA

CYBER WARS
China launches two satellites: state media

Shenzhou-8 departs from in-orbit lab, ready for return

China's spacecraft comes back to Earth

Shenzhou for Dummies

CYBER WARS
New Trio Welcomed Aboard Station, Gets to Work

Maintaining Crew Health One Step at a Time

Russian spacecraft delivers new crew to ISS

Soyuz Docks At ISS, Hatch Opened

CYBER WARS
Mobile Launcher Moves to Launch Pad

Rocket engineer Wolfgang Jung a logistics expert for space science

Arianespace to launch satellite for DIRECTV Latin America

Delta Mariner offloads launch components at Vandenberg

CYBER WARS
Exo planet count tops 700

Giant planet ejected from the solar system

Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

Dwarf planet sized up accurately as it blocks light of faint star

CYBER WARS
New 'smart' material could help tap medical potential of tissue-penetrating light

Orbital-Built Intelsat 18 Communications Satellite Completes In-Orbit Testing

Amazon sells Kindle Fire below cost: research firm

World's lightest material invented




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement