From a Frontline interivew with the new head of CyberSecutiry at the Homeland Security dep't:
March 19, 2003
"Everybody talks about the sophisticated attacks that are taking place, the sophisticated attacks that seem to focus on electrical power companies,
water utilities. What's going on?
Certainly those are the attacks that people are focused on, because they're the ones that concern all of us. The defense of those critical
infrastructures needs to be prioritized. Their electronic defense is one component of their defense. We actually see that certain infrastructures,
like the utilities, like the financial services sector, do receive more attacks than, say, the healthcare industry, or the non-profits of the world. I
don't know if it's a statistical anomaly, or if it's one where there are actually more attacks targeting those organizations."
edit-
"People out there are saying, "These systems are so vulnerable that they could be taken down. I think someone could take down a grid in America."
From your point of view here, does something like that seem in the realm of belief?
I don't know that a catastrophic system-wide type of event can occur. Certainly, there are areas of vulnerability in the infrastructure. So can the
entire system be brought down or destroyed? I wouldn't have insight into that. But I believe there are key vulnerability points, but it may be more
limited than some people would imply."
www.pbs.org...
[Edited on 16-9-2003 by ktprktpr]