East Coast Blackouts and SCADA

The widespread blackout on the East Coast could possibly be the result of a cascading SCADA failure. In short, SCADA technology allows administrators of utilities to adjust any parameter off-sight by way of web-enabled switches. Nobody switches flips at the power plants any longer, its done remotely. If you watch the PBS Special, you see most of the systems are on Windows 2000/XP systems and vulnerable to outside intrusion. It is feared that if hackers were to launch an offensive on the grid, that the effect could cascade and disrupt distribution in a large area. And if the attacks continued, power could stay out for a very long time. There could be a very good explanation for all of this but I think our SCADA-enabled infrastructure has been sabotaged.

www.pbs.org...


[Edited on 14-8-2003 by kukla]

Very good post, kukla. I'm not ready to make this anything it's not, yet. But things like this are always up for consideration.

Thanks for sharing the link.

My best advice would be "eyes wide open."

regards
seekerof

damn!!!!

Maybe the Blaster virus has something to do with this. Another possiblity is from the Sun. After all today there was a great deal of earthquake activity.

This isnt some kind of readyness exersise is it? would the US government go to this kind of trouble to test evac procedures and such? just a thought

I�ve had Sygate Firewall installed for months and I log an average of 20 code-red attacks a day and usually one port scan a day. That all stopped about three days ago. Anybody else noticed this?

Originally posted by kukla
I�ve had Sygate Firewall installed for months and I log an average of 20 code-red attacks a day and usually one port scan a day. That all stopped about three days ago. Anybody else noticed this?

You know what? Run Spybot and ad-aware.. remove all tracking cookies.. this should do the trick for you.. and no more Google "free porn / pics" searches..

Originally posted by Uninen

Originally posted by kukla
I�ve had Sygate Firewall installed for months and I log an average of 20 code-red attacks a day and usually one port scan a day. That all stopped about three days ago. Anybody else noticed this?

You know what? Run Spybot and ad-aware.. remove all tracking cookies.. this should do the trick for you..

and no more Google "free porn / pics" searches..

Thanks for the moral advice. I run SpyBot frequently. No Kaza or any other p2p.

Hackers, Hackers, Hackers, Hackers, Hackers - Check your bank accounts would be my advice.

it doesn't look like a hacker to me. It could someone doing the "perfect terrorist simulation"

Listen, a power surge is produced at the Niagra Falls, networks shut down automatically to protect the system; all of this is not out of the norm, this is consistent with how it should be. Here are my two questions:

They have been quick to rule out terrorism, although they don't know why it happened. If you don't know why, how can you rule out anything so quickly?

Will it all come up properly? There's a significant phase concern whenever talking about reconnecting grids.

In order for a power out of this size, you need access to the national power grid, either way you look at it, in order for a power out this big, the main computer would have to be shut down or a Hacker that turned it off of messed with it.

I got work in an hour, i'll say this much, New York is in more trouble then it seems. Everything there needs power to function, backup systems don't last long in giant buildings.

This isnt some kind of readyness exersise is it? would the US government go to this kind of trouble to test evac procedures and such? just a thought

If they went through the trouble of 9/11, then they certainly are not beneath this by anymeans.

Im still uncertain whats causing it. What the hell is going on?

Power outage would be a serious security hazard. Like, with computers and networks down.....well, pretty easy to slip through somewhere. all the panick and chaos right now...

lets hope something bad dont happen.

Someone mentioned HAARP reading being awfully high. can anyone link this?

The serious danger of SCADA is how much has been planned and tampered with already. Hackers could�ve been tampering with the systems for months, setting up the cascade. For example, lets say a switch should have a tolerance threshold of 20 amps. That is if the circuit goes below 20 amps, it switches off. So if the amperage upstream suddenly switches off, the threshold is met and the switch opens the circuit denying power downstream. A hacker could reset the thresholds on thousands of switches and could literally design an attack that looked like a domino effect. Put all your dominoes in the right position and then knock one over and watch what happens.

The long and short of it is this; If it is a SCADA attack it will probably take much longer than one day to fix. Restarting nuclear reactors take at least that long.


[Edited on 14-8-2003 by kukla]

Is it poss for one switch to cause this chaos under normal circumstances?

Originally posted by RogueTrooper
Is it poss for one switch to cause this chaos under normal circumstances?

The way I understand it is that SCADA systems are setup to contain any such cascade. If one switch was open or closed by accident/explosion/god, it should've been contained in a smaller geographical area.

Thomas Crowne and Forstrike have good points. Think about it, if no one knows what caused this, how can anyone state it's not a terrorist event?

Exactly right on, backup power in N.Y.C. Generators are not a long term backup solution. Started at 3:00PM and it is now 4 hrs that the power has been out (CST).

then we are left with a couple of different options
That the system failed and failed badly or it could be a Hacker attack of some form? Are there any other reasons for a power failure on this scale? Could it be old equipment or Human error?