Full Disclosure mailing list archives
RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout
From: "Drew Copley" <dcopley () eeye com>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 12:33:59 -0700
-----Original Message----- From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com [mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com] On Behalf Of Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 7:09 PM To: Michael Gale Cc: full-disclosure () lists netsys com Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 16:09:21 EDT, Michael Gale <michael () bluesuperman com> said:Ya right - I find it amusing that every time something"bad" happensthere is a group in the Middle East ready to take credit for it. I believe that the blaster worm had a better chance at bring down the power plants then Al Qaida or some other primitive group....If they are taking responsibility for the power outage thenthe plantwould of definitely exploded.Well.. the *official* story is that a power line sagged into a tree.
There is no official story, yet, from what I see... Google News on Story, sorted by date, 'probe continues': http://news.google.com/news?q=blackout+tree&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&edition=u s&scoring=d
Let's see.. some good stout non-conducting rope.. toss it over the line.. hook it to a truck.. and help it out just a *little* bit...
In 1999, there were two primary terrorist attacks targetted against the United States. One of these involved blowing up the LA airport. This plot was stopped at the Canadian border. A second plot was not as well publicized, as it did not involve extremist Muslims but Neo-Nazi militia. This plot involved cutting one of the main power lines to California. The entire grid is mapped out, and much of this data is online. The weaknesses of these systems are also written up quite a bit. This system is definitely open to a wide variety of sabotage. As for Al Qaeda, while it is unlikely they were involved, they do have the capabilities. Despite all of this, these very weaknesses also show that there are many potential points of failure because mere hardware issues... Because of environment issues, etc.
Hmm.. anybody know where the Presidential motorcade was at the time? ;) There was a thing on NANOG recently about a spotter plane getting in trouble for flying a route along a transmission line, but he got within 30 miles of the motorcade.... And of course the information is published as an alert to pilots about the closed airspace - which means the Bad Guys know when/where they don't have to worry about spotter planes.
Security is security is security -- it is almost always dismal... Physical or "cyber".
_______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout danjr (Aug 19)
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Drew Copley (Aug 19)
- Re: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout gregh (Aug 19)
- Re: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Geoff Shively (Aug 20)
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Drew Copley (Aug 20)
- Re: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Michael Scheidell (Aug 20)
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Drew Copley (Aug 20)
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Drew Copley (Aug 19)
- Re: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Michael Gale (Aug 19)
- Re: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Valdis . Kletnieks (Aug 20)
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Drew Copley (Aug 20)
- Re: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Valdis . Kletnieks (Aug 20)
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout JT (Aug 19)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout Andre Ludwig (Aug 20)