Loading ...We Thought Snipers Were Threat Enough
As if snipers shooting up transformers were not a big enough threat to the power grid, now we learn that there’s a possibility of a hacker attack against U.S. and European energy companies that could disrupt power, and that the group involved is “affiliated with Russia.”
Department of Homeland Security officials have posted several alerts to companies operating “industrial control systems” that run critical commercial services during the last few days, and says it is analyzing “malware and artifacts associated with an industrial control system focused malware campaign.”
The malware is targeting machines “running outdated versions of a widely used specification for connectivity called Open Platform Communications, or OPC, technology.”
Apparently the malware wood cause multiple “common OPC platforms to intermittently crash. This could cause a denial-of-service effect or outage of applications reliant on OPC communications.”
The hacker group, calling itself Energetic Bear and Dragonfly, has broken into three control system vendors and “dropped the malware into legitimate software updates that its energy customers download.
Symantec, a computer security company, said the groups prey on “government and research targets, plus companies that operate power grids, electricity generation and petroleum pipelines, as well as industrial equipment providers.” Countries victimized include the U.S., Spain, Italy, France, and Germany.
The malware does not appear to affect “devices using newer versions of Open Platform Communications,” but you know how companies are . . . they never upgrade their software until they are forced to, because it causes immense upheaval in the ranks and constitutes a big expense.
(Global Security Newswire, Wednesday, July 2, 2014, via www.nti.org.)
By Chembio
Armstrong
Russia is responding by raising energy costs to Europe and throwing out all US auditing and financial companies in the country. The deputies of the Duma have already brought a law on the way to be voted on. Among the affected companies, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Boston Consulting Group Inc. and McKinsey & Co.
The Obama Administration is perhaps the most inept regime I have ever seen. I disagreed with Bush the Cheney puppet, but these people are vicious and evil-minded both against Russia and domestically. They should have sat down behind the curtain with Putin, even though he is an old world empire dreamer. These sanctions are stupid. Will not and cannot actually cause Putin to reverse his thinking but only turn more aggressive. He cannot back down without losing face. The objective is to hurt the Russian people so that they turn against Putin. And then what? This is not a very good situation in the least. Prepare for World War III. Ironically, the Democrats are the one who start them every time.
If anyone thinks for a second I am being hard on Obama and politicians in general, just read the Cycles of War. The Germans even took advertisements in the NY newspapers telling people not to sail on the RMS Lusitania because the US was using passenger ships to send arms to Britain illegally using civilian ships to protect arms shipments. Oh lets see. They accused Saddam Hussein of that as well. I guess it takes one to accuse one.
Sorry, politicians lied about the motives to start every single war. The lies are all documented and laid out in that report. Even Vietnam – I give the direct quote of LBJ saying the Vietnamese never fired on America, for all he knew, the US was shooting at whales. More than 50,000 Americans died for those lies.There should not be career politicians for economic sake or for the sake of society. We will always be just the expendable great unwashed.
From Ron Paul
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1406722792.php