One laptop does not a blackout make.
One day when the right laptop is hacked, a sub-editor is really going to regret that sub-title.
Russian 'grid attack' turns out to be a damp squib
Russian hackers have not penetrated America's electricity grid, in spite of an end-of-year media flurry saying they did. The story was triggered because an anonymous source told the Washington Post miscreants had infiltrated the grid, when in fact – as the story was later amended to read – one Burlington Electric Department …
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Tuesday 3rd January 2017 07:22 GMT Voland's right hand
Re: One laptop does not a blackout make.
Hehehe... have an upvote.
Pity I cannot have an upvote for the Russians solving the issue of "the management of utility XXX is an idiot" which would be the correct way to describe the so called "right laptop".
They recently voted a raft of laws around the so called "critical national infrastructure" legislation. The exec summary of said laws is that - management of companies who operate critical national infra are personally criminally liable if they fail to secure them against a cyber attack. No ifs, no buts, no coconuts. "Right laptop" in that context there means that the CEO will have an excursion up the Death Road to Kolyma. Something we should probably replicate - until we do, security expenditure and threat analysis are considered by PHBs a waste of money.
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Tuesday 3rd January 2017 01:46 GMT GrapeBunch
Cyberwar
The continuation of the Thomas Rid link refers to: "How Russia Recruited Elite Hackers for Its Cyberwar" and NYT indicates that they not only recruit criminals, they also recruit before cases go on trial. It's funny, earlier today, I was reading about cyberwar in The Guardian, and thought ... " so that is why USA applies such long jail terms to young hackers who sometimes don't even cause any damage, who are just joy-riders. It's so the USA security organization "recruiters" know where to find them for the coming cyberwar. If they were just let off with 50 hours of Community Service, they might disappear back into the woodwork, living the life of long hair and pizzas. Instead they will be hardened into remorseless criminals and easy to find, just the kind of troops needed in the first world cyberwar. The acronym WC1 or WC I does look like something you wouldn't want on your P-shirt.
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Tuesday 3rd January 2017 02:33 GMT Mark 85
The first story I saw on this over the weekend did contain the comment about the laptop. However, after the hyped up press picked it up they overlooked the one laptop comment and just ran with Armageddon.
Just once, I'd love to see one of the MSM actually have a tech reporter who knows tech and will look a bit further than the sensational headlines and Twitterstorms.....
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Tuesday 3rd January 2017 08:46 GMT Hans 1
Re: "An anonymous source told the Washington Post"
>Guardian-levels
Would you be so kind as to point me to one, yes, a single Guardian article containing fabricated news, please ?
I know the Telegraph, Daily Fail, Sun, Times and Sunday Times are full of it. Just to be sure ... what newspapers, if any, do you read ?
PS: I do not live in the UK, have never really lived there and have but limited exposure to British newspapers, the only British rags I find around here are tabloid trash full of BS, Sunday Times and Guardian. From my experience, Guardian is "sort of" Ok, compared to the rest ... it was also chosen by the folks over at wikileaks ... must mean something, right ? Sort of, like, hm "trustworthy" ...
As for the story here, I think the journo did not do his homework properly and, as is expressed in the article, that is not always an easy thing to do. I mean, the journo certainly made sure the whistle-blower was working for the power company, that seems quite clear .... getting confirmation from the power company would have been harder, even if it had been the truth ...
BTW, exaggeration is common in US media, from what I have seen ...
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Tuesday 3rd January 2017 10:09 GMT PTW
Re: "An anonymous source told the Washington Post"
Hans 1 try https://twitter.com/somuchguardian if you want a list of examples of Guardian BS
It's a financially and ideologically bankrupt paper, staffed by Champagne Socialists and funded by a trust in the Cayman Islands, you know, the sort the Guardian and it's readers are always screeching about. Tiny circulation by comparison to other papers.
No, I don't take any of them, it's only when you read a "story" about something you are well versed in that you realise it's all BS.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
