OT - Cyber Crime
Willow
nation states and large criminal groups.
Several of the attacks on infrastructure took place in Brazil, where
major cities were left without power for several days. There appeared
to be little that we have done to avoid similar attacks. The loses
caused by a concerted attack on our collective infrastructure (the US
and Canada share electrical grids) would be disaster. On the criminal
front, a group of criminals gained access to card numbers and pins and
took several banks for a total of $10 million (from ATMS in North
America, Europe and Asia, perhaps more locations) on one 24 hour
period. Much better than walking into a bank with a gun.
Richard Clarke, of 9/11 fame (and more) dealt with a more
unsophisticated cyber attack in Breakpoint, his second novel. In his
book the lines between Europe and Asia from North America are bombed.
A bit crude when one can do this without a bomb or any physical
damage. Just hack the controlling computers.
One segment on 60 minutes had cyber thugs taking control of a large
generator, the type we all get our power from today. They were able
to shake it apart in minutes with computers taking over controls.
I had no idea that whole cities had been thus attacked. Amazing.
Picture the lights going out in New York, Montreal and other major
cities - for days. Or power going out in a major cold storm. Not
nice...
Willow
BarbNJ
"Willow" <pang...@telus.net> wrote in message
news:cf787a84-97ad-4ebb...@g22g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
I do believe that we Americans are very aware of the threat. However, the
world wants us to be nice to terrorists so,,,, good luck with that.
Barb H
Joyleen E. Seymour
> 60 Minutes last Sunday ran an interesting segemtn on cyber crime buy
> nation states and large criminal groups.
>
>
> Richard Clarke, of 9/11 fame (and more) dealt with a more
> unsophisticated cyber attack in Breakpoint, his second novel. In his
> book the lines between Europe and Asia from North America are bombed.
> A bit crude when one can do this without a bomb or any physical
> damage. Just hack the controlling computers.
>
> One segment on 60 minutes had cyber thugs taking control of a large
> generator, the type we all get our power from today. They were able
> to shake it apart in minutes with computers taking over controls.
The Bruce Willis movie - Live Free or Die Hard - had this as its major
plot point.
>
> I had no idea that whole cities had been thus attacked. Amazing.
> Picture the lights going out in New York, Montreal and other major
> cities - for days. Or power going out in a major cold storm. Not
> nice...
>
>
>
I don't have to picture it. We lost our power during an ice storm last
winter. For five days. We live in a ruralish area and had no water.
Our neighbors across the street were running their well pump on a
generator, so we were able to get water for the animals from them. My
short story in this year's Level Best Anthology came out of that ice
storm. It's about a guy hijacking a power truck.
ELF
>
> I don't have to picture it. We lost our power during an ice storm last
> winter. For five days. We live in a ruralish area and had no water.
> Our neighbors across the street were running their well pump on a
> generator, so we were able to get water for the animals from them. My
> short story in this year's Level Best Anthology came out of that ice
> storm. It's about a guy hijacking a power truck.
Um, so you now have your own generator?
elf (who wants one)
--
"We live in the interface between radioactive molten rock and hard
vaccum and we worry about safety." --Chris Hunt in alt.sysadmin.recovery
Joyleen E. Seymour
> Joyleen E. Seymour wrote:
>
>>
>> I don't have to picture it. We lost our power during an ice storm
>> last winter. For five days. We live in a ruralish area and had no
>> water. Our neighbors across the street were running their well pump on
>> a generator, so we were able to get water for the animals from them.
>> My short story in this year's Level Best Anthology came out of that
>> ice storm. It's about a guy hijacking a power truck.
>
> Um, so you now have your own generator?
>
> elf (who wants one)
>
No. We don't have the money. We live less than a mile from the county
prison and nursing home. This was a freak occurance.
Janet
We don't have a generator either, although many people around here do. Every
few years we have a long outage (ie, more than a day, up to 3 days), but the
expense seems too much for that. And, key point, we are on public water,
thanks to a main running out to the country fairgrounds. So we don't need
electricity to get water. That makes a HUGE difference in how tolerable an
extended outage is. This is the first time we've lived in a house without a
well, so I've BT/DT.
Of course, when the outage occurs just before Christmas, it's a nightmare
for me....
Willow
nothing but computer hacking as a weapon would be a stage up. Our
infrastructure is very open - from electricity to water supplies,
traffic signals, sewage and more. An enemy miles away (like a drone
pilot now) could certainly bring a city to its knees.
The concept of bank robbery, as evidently happened in the US a few
months ago, is certainly the stuff of novels. Taking over $10 million
using white plastic and ATMs around the world shows a level of
sophistication that is hard to imagine. While some money laundering
techniques are very labour intensive (i.e. multiple bank deposits to
avoid the $10,000 level) this way of taking funds from banks (and the
60 Minutes article suggested that over ten banks were attacked) makes
for a good novel. No doubt the robbers will get even more inventive,
as will the nation states who attacked the cities in Brazil (which,
upon surfing, seems to b e home to cyber crooks of all types)....
Willow
Willow
Hmmmmm.....
Conspiracy anyone?