Revealed: NSA targeting domestic computer systems in secret test

Revealed: NSA targeting domestic computer systems in secret test

news.cnet.com

The NSA's so-called Perfect Citizen program conducts "vulnerability exploration and research" against the computerized controllers that control "large-scale" utilities including power grids and natural gas pipelines, the documents show. The program is scheduled to continue through at least September 2014.

The Perfect Citizen files obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and provided to CNET shed more light on how the agency aims to defend -- and attack -- embedded controllers. The NSA is reported to have developed Stuxnet, which President Obama secretly ordered to be used

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You know, a few years back I was at this seminar about how how resources such as water and power can be distributed with maximal efficiency. The guy talked about how each area of a country should have its own power grid in contrast to the more nationalized one that we currently have. We should diversify energy sources based on location as each part of the country has its own source of energy. Some places that have more sun should used solar power while others should use wind or giant turbines in the sea. Coal, gas, and nuclear are also more suitable for certain areas. Instead we have something like this:




Everything is very centralized and if one control center gets hacked or something, others will go down with it. The sources of energy are also not very diversified. So if one area runs out of some resource, the others will also go down.

news.cnet.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

hi op

Stuxnet...what an effin bullsnot of a system

Iranian attacks on infrastructure through...WMDs

I may be stupid at times and admit it..but

Unlike most malware, Stuxnet does little harm to computers and networks that do not meet specific configuration requirements; "The attackers took great care to make sure that only their designated targets were hit...It was a marksman’s job."[32] While the worm is promiscuous, it makes itself inert if Siemens software is not found on infected computers, and contains safeguards to prevent each infected computer from spreading the worm to more than three others, and to erase itself on 24 June 2012.[25]

For its targets, Stuxnet contains, among other things, code for a man-in-the-middle attack that fakes industrial process control sensor signals so an infected system does not shut down due to detected abnormal behavior.[25][32][20] Such complexity is very unusual for malware. The worm consists of a layered attack against three different systems
en.wikipedia.org...

Sorry for dredging crap, but crap can be flushed away ready to return at a later date...

I honestly thought they had finished this program already. In 2010 they had a press release that gave a vague overview of the program. WSJ Article 2010

I remember seeing something else about this program prior to the FOIA release somewhere, perhaps here?

As Washington hunts ill-defined al-Qaeda groups in the Middle East and Africa, and concerns itself with Iran’s eventual nuclear potential, it has a much more pressing problem at home: Its energy grid is vulnerable to anyone with basic weapons and know-how.

Forget about cyber warfare and highly organized terrorist attacks, a lack of basic physical security on the US power grid means that anyone with a gun—like disgruntled Michigan Militia types, for instance--could do serious damage. For the past two months, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been tasked with creating a security strategy for the electric grid and hydrocarbon facilities through its newly created Office of Energy Infrastructure Security. So far, it’s not good news.

“There are ways that a very few number of actors with very rudimentary equipment could take down large portions of our grid,” warns FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff. This, he says, “is an equal if not greater issue” than cyber security.

FERC’s gloom-and-doom risk assessment comes on the heels of the recent declassification of a 2007 report by the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences on 14 November warned that a terrorist attack on the US power grid could wreak more damage than Hurricane Sandy. It could cause massive blackouts for weeks or months at a time. But this would only be the beginning, the Academy warns, spelling out an “end of days” scenario in which blackouts lead to widespread fear, panic and instability.

US Power Grid vulnerable to just about everything

As long as they stick to Power plants and the like, I'm all for it... You don't want to know how many times idiotic IT guys install routers in mid sized businesses and never change the default router/switch password.. which is 'admin'.... lol scary... so good on them for checking for these things. better the NSA finds it and warns the company than China or Russia exploiting it....

I mean, I can see 13 wireless points on my connection screen.. 7 of them are unsecured... so that means I could connect to any of those and use their Internet... IMO people should have to get a license to be allowed on the Internet.. lol.. I mean, its those morons that open infected emails and spreads it to their entire address book... ugh...

I miss the internet in 1994.. granted, it was dial-up 56k, but there were ZERO ads, ZERO email spam and sites were easy to get around... (not having flash sucked).... but those early days.. I remember the ISP.. called "Cybergate" in Winterpark, FL.... hehe..

reply to post by die_another_day


I sure hope TPTB are trying to protect our grid. If they are not and something happens a heck of a lot of people are going to wonder why they did nothing.



What I don't understand is why power cables are not all put under ground. This is something the country needs and would put a ton of people back to work. It is like they want the system to fail.

Large scale controllers of utilities. THEY'RE OFFGRID. And usually use siemens controllers, but then you have to remember the Stuxnet worm for that system was developed by the CIA and Mossad. Fukushima comes to mind.

reply to post by die_another_day


Yeah, I reckon that consumers took a blow to the midsection when energy regulations began to insulate political entrepreneurs from maket competition. To confuse matters even more there are those select people who'll refer to this arrangement as capitalism.

Beam me up already!

Yes, Unity, the first thing that popped into my mind was Fukushima.

Let's take those vulnerabilities exploited in Japan and put everyone in danger EVERYWHERE with a massive central grid... Just waiting for the next worm... Lots of "smart" decisions these days about the power grid, indeed...

Originally posted by Pharyax
I miss the internet in 1994.. granted, it was dial-up 56k

If you had a 56k modem in 1994 you must have had a time machine
A 6k modem back then was spectacular

reply to post by pillock


Perhaps in NZ but not here.
I worked with 9.6K modems in 1975 and 56K modems in 1988.
Telecom has been around far longer than PCs or the internet.

ganjoa

Considering Windows still has 80% market share among operating systems, and Windows contains NSA keys, I can't say I'm particularly surprised. Some people seem to be under the illusion that the internet and modern computing was developed by private entrepreneurs to make money and provide us with a product that improves our lives.

In reality, the internet began with ARPANET, and was most assuredly a product of the military industrial complex. The impetus to create the internet arose from the desire for a hardened, redundant communications network in the event of nuclear war.

Today the internet covers the globe, reaches into most homes and businesses on the planet, and is routinely utilized for purposes of domestic surveillance and data mining. The ability to do these things is largely by design. People should keep that in mind when surfing the web.

Peace.

Originally posted by Unity_99
Large scale controllers of utilities. THEY'RE OFFGRID. And usually use siemens controllers, but then you have to remember the Stuxnet worm for that system was developed by the CIA and Mossad. Fukushima comes to mind.

edit on 24-12-2012 by Unity_99 because: (no reason given)

Eartquake and tusnami are also controlled by Siemens controllers?
Or those things do not come to mind due to mind being predominantly occupied by other issues?

Originally posted by pillock

Originally posted by Pharyax
I miss the internet in 1994.. granted, it was dial-up 56k

If you had a 56k modem in 1994 you must have had a time machine

A 6k modem back then was spectacular

56k bits/s = 6k bytes/s after protocol overhead, i.e. what the user would typically see if everything was working optimally would be 6kb/s.

The AT&T monopoly game isn't over with. Just new names.

So much for secret they have been up to tactics like this for... since people even heard of the NSA. Phone games.

They do it on individuals too. Look at a government computer website from a cafe too long, blip, there goes your browser.

Some team messed with my bluetooth of my iPad also, of course remote viewed; that's a law of contact, that it's a psychic two way street guys. Couldn't have done it without contacting another country, the maker of the keyboard, to get the 4 digit pin...legally I must mention. They were on a mission, to give my forum post making a hard time. I must have said something awesome. Polo shirts and black hats in a room on a state on the east coast. Maybe they are attacking conspiracy forums. Maybe they were attacking weaknesses in bluetooth keyboards; it was a Targus, made in Europe.

It's so wrong the way the laws are written among countries to allow that technology and information sharing, even worse, that there's some eavesdropping guy being paid to make posting more difficult for some people. He probably lied to the company anyways.

Internet sabotage government programs, some guy in a room interrupting computer use, is disgusting. It's a form of censorship.

Too perfect. We are people, not animals with shock collars. It's no secret.

Originally posted by Unity_99
Large scale controllers of utilities. THEY'RE OFFGRID. And usually use siemens controllers, but then you have to remember the Stuxnet worm for that system was developed by the CIA and Mossad. Fukushima comes to mind.

edit on 24-12-2012 by Unity_99 because: (no reason given)

Don't assume that "offgrid networks" are secure.

Not long ago, if your computer network was cut off from the Internet, devoid of wireless routers and hunkered behind locked doors, you were safe. But not anymore. Several U.S. industry and military labs are improving the deciphering of the 1s and 0s that traverse these carefully guarded networks, and finding ways to inject data and infect systems with destructive viruses — “jumping the gap” into an ironclad network.

Penetrating sealed networks

reply to post by die_another_day


Try this... www.nsa.gov...

reply to post by Pharyax


"better the NSA finds it and warns the company than China or Russia exploiting it.... "

i wouldnt be so sure on that, if they find it, they will most likely use that same back door ^^