Re: Electrical grid's operator tries to stay ahead of hackers

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

Forwarded from: Richard Forno <rforno (at) infowarrior.org>

Jeebus.  Everyone in the world needs to take a deep breath and calm the 
hell down here.  They're screaming bloody murder about hackers and the 
power grids and ZMFGTHESKYISFALLING.  How quickly they forget that this 
kind of stufff was reported / found / observed in the 1996 PCCIP report 
that kicked off the whole notion of "infrastructure protection" and 
scaring folks into creating the whole CIP industry.  Yet they continued 
to sacrifice security/survivability for convenience and cost-cutting, 
with the obvious results.  (to competent infosec folks, anyway)

Bottom line?  Screw the breathless hysteria and headlines, WE ARE DOING 
THIS TO OURSELVES.

-rf


On Apr 9, 2009, at 07:08 , InfoSec News wrote:

> http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6365514.html
>
> By TOM FOWLER
> Houston Chronicle
> April 8, 2009
>
> Texas’ electric grid operator constantly upgrades its computer security
> to protect against intrusion by hackers, its chairman said Wednesday
> following published reports that foreign “spies” have probed the
> nation’s power grid for vulnerabilities.
>
> “We are constantly modifying and upgrading our protections as technology
> advances, business requirements change and new threats emerge,” said Bob
> Kahn, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates
> the power grid that carries about 85 percent of the state’s electricity.
>
> The Wall Street Journal reported in Wednesday’s edition that in a number
> of incidents in recent years, it appears operators in China, Russia and
> other nations have tried to map out the U.S. power grid and hide
> software in systems where it might be used in the future. The story
> cited unnamed U.S. intelligence officials.

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