Chinese hackers and U.S. blackouts

Remember that big blackout that hit the northeast United States back in the summer of 2003? I certainly do. I was in Vermont at the time, and the whole country was talking about what turned out to be the biggest power outage in U.S. history.

Official explanations were all over the map, including overgrown trees and overtaxed utilities. Now comes the latest explanation: Chinese hackers.

According to this article just out in the National Journal, some U.S. intelligence people now believe Chinese hackers have triggered two separate blackouts in this decade. Here are three paragraphs:

One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said that U.S. intelligence officials have told him that the PLA in 2003 gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern United States. The intelligence officials said that forensic analysis had confirmed the source, Bennett said. “They said that, with confidence, it had been traced back to the PLA.” These officials believe that the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year. A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected.

Officially, the blackout was attributed to a variety of factors, none of which involved foreign intervention. Investigators blamed “overgrown trees” that came into contact with strained high-voltage lines near facilities in Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Corp. More than 100 power plants were shut down during the cascading failure. A computer virus, then in wide circulation, disrupted the communications lines that utility companies use to manage the power grid, and this exacerbated the problem. The blackout prompted President Bush to address the nation the day it happened. Power was mostly restored within 24 hours.

There has never been an official U.S. government assertion of Chinese involvement in the outage, but intelligence and other government officials contacted for this story did not explicitly rule out a Chinese role. One security analyst in the private sector with close ties to the intelligence community said that some senior intelligence officials believe that China played a role in the 2003 blackout that is still not fully understood.

The sourcing for this article is not ironclad. But it certainly makes one think about vulnerabilities in cyber-security.

Comments

[A B]

There is no doubt that there is a worldwide network of criminal organizations that are involved in probing, testing, and exploiting security flaws in systems worldwide.

A majority of these efforts are aimed at run-on-the-mill cybercrime like accessing bank accounts illegally, credit cards, running up charges illegally, perhaps even tampering with billing and accounting systems.

Without a doubt every major military is learning, teaching, and training for cyber warfare.

However, it is rather far fetched to blame hackers from any one country, because, a) hackers are an international bunch, b) tracing “origins” is very difficult because hackers go through servers in multiple countries to obscure their origin, c) no major government will knowingly allow their units, especially ones that are known to be watched closely like the PLA, to leave an electronic trail that leads back to them.

To have such an allegation published citing a “prominent official” who remains unnamed identify the culprit as the PLA is, perhaps, below the dignity of reputable publications and harkens to the Judith Miller style of journalism.

While I would not rule out the PLA, or any number of the hundreds of possible suspects that originate from China for such an exploit, it is perhaps worth noting that the largest single organized effort at penetrating systems worldwide, and the most effective effort, is operated by the US Government, via agencies like the NSA (No Such Agency), DIA, etc.

To my knowledge, even such agencies will not do something like take down a power grid of another country prior to the initiation of hostilities.

The only known organization who have attacked a major piece of infrastructure and, furthermore, gotten away with it, was the Fang Lun Gong, who attacked a satellite carrying a Chinese broadcast, and was believed to do so from the United States.

Needless to say, the Chinese government did not blame the US government either, nor did both governments took the proper steps to bring these cyber terrorists to justice.

[bemis]

YUP. TJ has returned to his typical Attack-Dog-Mode, with sinister insinuations, etc. Already bored with Sichuan earthquake & straight journalism, TJ? Thanks AB for keeping him in line, with some FACTS.

[Eve]

Heard a radio interview the other day, many are aware of these possibilities of internet tampering. They mentioned that the U.S. Pentagon is on a totally private network, different fibers, routers, everything. And they said other systems, should be taken off the public internet, like the air traffic controllers and other sensitive systems.

[A B]

@bemis

Just for the record, I have the greatest respect for the capabilities and competences of Mr Johnson.

It is possible for many to disagree with his perspective, his facts, his selection of stories, but that does not take away from my (and I think many others') respect for his professionalism, competence, and capabilities.

It is not my intent, nor my "doing" to stick facts here to "keep him in line".

Furthermore, a good journalist should always push the envelope, to provoke us, to let us see things differently, and to expand, rather than to fit things into our pre-existing world. As long as Mr Johnson stick to reporting and the facts, he has wide latitude to show us a different world than one we are familiar and / or comfortable with.

Take that! Tim

[A B]

Here are more suspects for hackers....

http://www.dailytech.com/The+Growing+Epidemic+of+Child+Hackers/article11940.htm

Blog: Internet The Growing Epidemic of Child Hackers
Mikaela Kessandra Garrido - June 2, 2008 10:14 PM
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Little do you know that tiny Tim down the street just siphoned your entire bank account and made off with your identity.

Child delinquency is nothing new and neither is teen and pre-teen computer hacking. However, both of these are usually rather minor when compared to the crimes adults perpetrate, or at least you think this would be the case.

Typical juvenile delinquent crimes like robbing a candy store or beating up a peer takes a second seat towards derailing trains in Poland and injuring 12, stealing over 16,000 taxpayer’s information (including social security numbers), shutting down various government-run websites, or costing cities $250,000 thanks to intense and severe prank phone calls called “swatting”.

If only China had a monopoly on these delinquents.... surely hundreds of millions of little emperors can be turned into great hackers that can take down any system!

[A B]

Here is how a very experienced group of tech journalists covered the same story:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/03/chinese-hackers-blamed-power

"The story is that the People's Liberation Army may have cracked the computers controlling the US power grid to trigger the cascading 2003 blackout that cut off electricity to 50 million people in eight states and a Canadian province.

Unfortunately it is not just a bit, but completely, untrue."

"But this is the first time that the yarn has been linked to one of the most thoroughly-investigated power incidents in US history.

Next it will be found that Chinese hackers were responsible for the housing credit crunch, Miley Cyrus, television reality talent shows and other atrocities. µ"

Oh... and I know Chinese hackers from the PLA is hacking into McClatchy's blogs and changing my posts... too.