Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?
Kaspersky to 1337 haxors: take down our power grid. We dare you
Kaspersky Lab is launching a capture-the-flag event at which hackers will have the chance to pop a simulated power station. The hacking events are popular with security types who compete to break into specially set-up systems to obtain flags and score points for feats of exploits, cracking, and pivoting. Kaspersky Lab will …
COMMENTS
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Friday 9th September 2016 07:03 GMT Baldy50
Real jarts when I was a teenager were old arts with ribbon or string attached to the shaft, the flights had to be glued in place mind.
A one foot square bit of old board with a bullseye in the middle with a score of fifty, circles of twenty, ten and 5 radiating outward and painted or marker penned onto the board.
It was a one on one player game with each idiot at opposite ends of the field and the dart was whizzed up into the air in the general direction of your opponent, he had to run around as the dart was falling and track it then hold the board up to catch it and try and get the best score over so many goes.
Ribbon was preferred as it made the dart more visible but not always available and Fred got a dart in the back of his head one day and just kept running around the field screaming, when we finally caught him we had to put him on his front and three of us sit on him so rick could pull the fecker out.
Sorry back on topic!
'It will cover some form of travel and accommodation costs and offer high-tech gadgets to winners.'
What, no cash? Maybe they'll do a few ATM's while they're in town for beer money.
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Thursday 8th September 2016 14:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
Connecting Power System servers to the internet
Yep, you called it. At least in some cases, with some companies, they will use the internet to access substations, even some generating stations, to avoid spending money on their own WAN.
But even when a company has their own microwave network and air gaps for critical servers and PLC's someone, often an Engineer, will install a modem so they can access the equipment remotely. It doesn't matter if it is avoid having to travel to fix problems or so they can do more work from home it leaves a wide open door for anyone who can guess the 9 letter password which just happens to be the model of the vehicle the engineer uses.
And of course it would be much too difficult to call and have someone plug in and unplug the modem when required.
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Thursday 8th September 2016 19:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Connecting Power System servers to the internet
Far cry from days gone by. Used to be that the power companies built their own networks because the ILEC wasn't reliable enough for their needs.
Now they need to be "competitive". Guess how reliability and survivability stacks up on the priority list when compared to monthly bills.
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Thursday 8th September 2016 09:11 GMT Bloakey1
Re: Just checking
I thought the same thing. On the other hand it is a good way for Kapersky to test their new products and embedded systems that they are are running off the back of a recent acquisition. It is in their interest to have standard systems hacked so that they can secure SCADA servers etc. and increase market share.
All well and good but what an opportunity for state sponsored hackers to learn new techniques.
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Thursday 8th September 2016 09:24 GMT Immenseness
Re: Just checking
The cynic in me can't help wondering how much extra business Kaspersky think they will get if they can "prove" how vulnerable the grid is to hacking by scaring the powers that be with this demonstration - no matter how close the simulation is to actuality, then being the "experts" they can swoop in and save us with their costly "solution"
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