Gas pipelines under cyberattack - excuse for SOPA CISPA ?

Apparently some control systems for U.S. natural gas pipelines have been under a cyber attack for a few months now.

The DHS and FBI are working to "address" the attacks.

The story mentions political fighting concerning SOPA amd CISPA.

The DHS has a whole division called the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team

They have broad power to investigate.

But what's the association with SOPA and CISPA ?

I wonder if they have discovered some kind of Stuxnet virus or something ?

More importantly, WHO is doing these attacks ?


I would think the DHS with a strong "response" team would have traced the sources by now ?

The computer networks managing major natural-gas pipelines are currently experiencing a series of cyberattacks, according to government officials.

The attacks have been going on for months and involve fraudulent emails targeting employees of the gas companies.

Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, told The Hill that the department is working with the FBI and other federal agencies to address the attacks.

He said the department's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team began working with the gas companies in March to "prepare mitigation plans customized to their current network and security configurations to detect, mitigate and prevent such threats."

It is unclear how much damage, if any, the attacks have caused.

The incident comes as Congress is debating whether to require critical infrastructure, such as gas pipelines, to meet minimum cybersecurity standards.

Senate Democrats and the White House argue that minimum standards are necessary to protect critical systems from devastating attacks.

A gas pipeline accident in San Bruno, Calif., in 2010 caused a massive explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. Supporters of the mandates argue that hackers could cause a similar catastrophe with a cyberattack.

But Republicans say the regulations are unnecessary and would burden businesses.

House GOP leaders have indicated they will not allow a floor vote on any legislation that creates new cybersecurity regulations. Last month, they passed their own cybersecurity bill, the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), that focuses only on voluntary information sharing and does not include mandates.

Amber Alerts

At least three confidential "amber" alerts – the second most sensitive next to "red" – were issued by DHS beginning March 29, all warning of a "gas pipeline sector cyber intrusion campaign" against multiple pipeline companies. But the wave of cyber attacks, which apparently began four months ago – and may also affect Canadian natural gas pipeline companies – is continuing.

That fact was reaffirmed late Friday in a public, albeit less detailed, "incident response" report from the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), an arm of DHS based in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It reiterated warnings in the earlier confidential alerts made directly to pipeline companies and some power companies.

Sources
Gas pipelines under cyberattack

Alert: Major cyber attack aimed at natural gas pipeline companies

Natural gas pipelines under cyber attack since December

It's probably a variant of STUXNET, I mean the hacking community has had plenty time to mess with it, seeing as they have had half the code since Feb. of last year. I believe and if I remember correctly the hacking community ripped the STUXNET from HBGary but it won't do the same damage as STUXNET though. They would need the full code for that. DQ is a variant of the STUXNET but even that doesn't do the same damage. DQ just hits your dox. documents and only stays on for 36 days before it self destructs. In order for it to be as close to STUXNET they would need the full source code.

Guess will see.

reply to post by xuenchen

I sure hope they get on top of this very quickly. This stunt was amusing to read about when it was done to the Soviets. I'm not laughing one bit if, over 2 decades later, we get the ultimate whammy in return. I suppose I wouldn't be shocked..but definitely not amused.

At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War, written by Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary who served in the US National Security Council during the Reagan administration, documents how software and other technology was deliberately created with flaws as part of US attempts to undermine the Soviet economy.

In his book, Reed says the pipeline explosion was just one example of "cold-eyed economic warfare" against the Soviet Union at a time when the US was trying to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. The CIA slipped the flawed software to the Soviets in a way they would not detect it, according to Reed.

Source

This was a good book by the way. The article is 2004 and as one might figure, the incident was in the early 80's. I guess Cyber-Warfare is nothing really new, just a whole different world it's happening in. I think it's safe to say that with current energy markets and price volatility by so much as a bad rumor, something like this would be catastrophic in economic terms.

Secondary Link and Source
The above link is the UK Telegraph's coverage of the same story.

Bummer cyber attack...
Anyone think of just unplugging the cable?
TADAAAAAA no fee, I do it for my country.

I am having a hard time understanding the sheer stupidity of the Government so they create more laws and more powers to deal with something that is already illegal.

Hell like was said just unplug the damn wan port.

reply to post by neo96

How much would you like to bet that the idiots you speak of have set up these networks so they depend on the connectivity for full operation? Insane...short sighted...suicidally stupid for those systems...but it sounds about right for how everyone thinks these days. They throw radical overkill for security at people boarding a plane or even buses at times. Our Infrastructure though? Aww... nothing to see here, move along now. Everything is well in hand.

futures.tradingcharts.com...
note the huge drop in price over the time covered by the graph

got to prop that up some how..
I Know!

The nice thing about terrorism is it drives the price of things like Gas up.

Lets take a peak in on the board meeting:

Yes, wink wink we must stop terrorism
yes, stop terrorism now
how about we replace it with excessive regulation?
yes good idea...
stop terrorism now!

I love the smell of artificial scarcity in the mourning