Dumb Media

I hate posting about stuff like this, it just gives it more exposure. But at the same time, I think the frank stupidity of the media has got to be exposed. They have been giving helpful hints to terrorists for ages, but I think it is actually getting worse in recent years. So now the Associated Press makes sure that if terrorists did not already know that there were vulnerabilities in the US, that they know now.

WASHINGTON - A government video shows the potential destruction caused by hackers seizing control of a crucial part of the U.S. electrical grid: an industrial turbine spinning wildly out of control until it becomes a smoking hulk and power shuts down.

The video, produced for the Homeland Security Department and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, was marked "Official Use Only." It shows commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that the enormous turbine shudders as pieces fly apart and it belches black-and-white smoke.

The video was produced for top U.S. policy makers by the Idaho National Laboratory, which has studied the little-understood risks to the specialized electronic equipment that operates power, water and chemical plants. Vice President Dick Cheney is among those who have watched the video, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because this official was not authorized to publicly discuss such high-level briefings.

"They've taken a theoretical attack and they've shown in a very demonstrable way the impact you can have using cyber means and cyber techniques against this type of infrastructure," said Amit Yoran, former U.S. cybersecurity chief for the Bush administration. Yoran is chief executive for NetWitness Corp., which sells sophisticated network monitoring software.

"It's so graphic," Yoran said. "Talking about bits and bytes doesn't have the same impact as seeing something catch fire."

The electrical attack never actually happened. The recorded demonstration, called the "Aurora Generator Test," was conducted in March by government researchers investigating a dangerous vulnerability in computers at U.S. utility companies known as supervisory control and data acquisition systems. The programming flaw was quietly fixed, and equipment-makers urged utilities to take protective measures.

I have no doubt, having been in the utility field for a long time, that a lot of the SCADA systems were never designed for today's world. A lot of them predate the internet for heaven's sake. But the AP is not doing this country any favors by broadcasting it. Most of the manufacturers of these systems are pretty fast to get fixes out if they identify a problem. Hopefully the AP will stop helping people who we should not be soon. Before their lights go out.

I'm not counting on it, however.

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  By Chris, Thursday, 27 September , 2007 @ 12:20 pm

  Background provided by someone who isn’t authorized to speak to the press, yet does so anyway.

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