Mouse click could plunge city into darkness, experts say
 
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:39:43 -0500 (CDT)

[We strongly oppose this kind of attack against the US government
(which would hurt the most vulenrable citizens)..if reding the article
encourages locally-based energy sources to expand, that's a good thing
however. It also does highlight how Washington's unnecessarily
aggressive and imperialist foreign policy subjects us all to yet
another dimension of risk. Would such attacks not exist if Washington
had a saner foreign policy? No, even Denmark would be at risk of
attacks. But a country with Denmark's type of for. policy as
history shows, is going to make a lot less enemies and be subjected to
far less attacks than a country with Washington's for. pol....-ED]

Mouse click could plunge city into darkness, experts say

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Researchers who launched an experimental cyber
attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the government
and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were
carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned.

Sources familiar with the experiment said the same attack scenario
could be used against huge generators that produce the country's
electric power.

Some experts fear bigger, coordinated attacks could cause widespread
damage to electric infrastructure that could take months to fix.

CNN has honored a request from the Department of Homeland Security not
to divulge certain details about the experiment, dubbed "Aurora," and
conducted in March at the Department of Energy's Idaho lab.

In a previously classified video of the test CNN obtained, the
generator shakes and smokes, and then stops.

DHS acknowledged the experiment involved controlled hacking into a
replica of a power plant's control system. Sources familiar with the
test said researchers changed the operating cycle of the generator,
sending it out of control.

 The White House was briefed on the experiment, and DHS officials said
 they have since been working with the electric industry to devise a
 way to thwart such an attack.

"I can't say it [the vulnerability] has been eliminated. But I can say
a lot of risk has been taken off the table," said Robert Jamison,
acting undersecretary of DHS's National Protection and Programs
Directorate.

. "For about $5 million and between three to five years of
preparation, an organization, whether it be transnational terrorist
groups or nation states, could mount a strategic attack against the
United States," said O. Sami Saydjari of the nonprofit Professionals
for Cyber Defense.

Economist Scott Borg, who produces security-related data for the
federal government, projects that if a third of the country lost power
for three months, the economic price tag would be $700 billion.

"It's equivalent to 40 to 50 large hurricanes striking all at once,"
Borg said. "It's greater economic damage than any modern economy ever
suffered. ... It's greater then the Great Depression. It's greater
than the damage we did with strategic bombing on Germany in World War
II."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/power.at.risk/index.html

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STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON?
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