Report: Russian Hackers Have Infiltrated The US

[Purveyor]

Source: The Hill

By Cory Bennett - 11/06/14 04:54 PM EST

Russian hackers have infiltrated most of the critical infrastructure in the United States, according to ABC News.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned last week that “numerous” critical industries might have been compromised, but said it has not yet seen any attempts to “damage, modify, or otherwise disrupt” any computer networks.
Sources told ABC that the Russian government — which has clashed repeatedly with the United States over the actions of separatists in Ukraine — is behind the effort.

Security researchers said it’s part of Russia’s ongoing attempt to poke and prod U.S. networks for vulnerabilities, gathering valuable information about the country’s infrastructure along the way.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/223266-report-russian-hackers-infiltrate-us

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'Trojan Horse' Bug Lurking in Vital US Computers Since 2011

Nov 6, 2014, 2:13 PM ET
By JACK CLOHERTY and PIERRE THOMAS

A destructive “Trojan Horse” malware program has penetrated the software that runs much of the nation’s critical infrastructure and is poised to cause an economic catastrophe, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

National Security sources told ABC News there is evidence that the malware was inserted by hackers believed to be sponsored by the Russian government, and is a very serious threat.

The hacked software is used to control complex industrial operations like oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines and even some nuclear plants. Shutting down or damaging any of these vital public utilities could severely impact hundreds of thousands of Americans.

DHS said in a bulletin that the hacking campaign has been ongoing since 2011, but no attempt has been made to activate the malware to “damage, modify, or otherwise disrupt” the industrial control process. So while U.S. officials recently became aware the penetration, they don’t know where or when it may be unleashed.

DHS sources told ABC News they think this is no random attack and they fear that the Russians have torn a page from the old, Cold War playbook, and have placed the malware in key U.S. systems as a threat, and/or as a deterrent to a U.S. cyber-attack on Russian systems – mutually assured destruction.

more...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/trojan-horse-bug-lurking-vital-us-computers-2011/story?id=26737476

[bemildred]

1. THIS is why it is stupid to put critical infrastructure on the Internet in the first place. nt

[defacto7]

6. Isn't that the truth.

How much more simple could it get? It's boggling to me how utterly apathetic our government and corporations that control our nation's infrastructure have been toward their network security. It's so simple it makes me wonder if it was on purpose, or maybe money making redundancies planned into the systems have gone out of control. That's what happens when uncontrolled capitalism overrides the point... the real purpose... trading long term survival for very short term gain.

[bemildred]

14. All they care about is profits.

Back in the early 90s when they started doing this shit I KNEW this day would come, because they basically did jack-shit about security and the government was doing all in it's power to thwart even that. And the Internet, fundamentally, relies on trust, because it is highly distributed, so there is no security in the internet, it's an extra added feature.

[newthinking]

11. This

[femmocrat]

2. Wonderful.

Like Obama needs more blame heaped on his plate.

[onehandle]

3. No fucking shit. Cut the hard lines to Russia, China, Korea... All of Asia.

That would reduce our data security risk mainly to Google, Amazon, and the NSA.

[newthinking]

9. We can't even protect ourselves. Russia and China have surely seperated their military

and other government computers from the general internet. It is simply common sense that we should have done the same.... Hopefully we secretly have already done so.

As for businesses.... that is something that we need to seriously consider anyway. Because the risk is not china or Russia or whoever, anyone with some resources could potentially take down the global economy. That needs to be thought through.

[FarrenH]

20. Cut the hard lines?

If you mean "take that infrastructure in questions off the Internet and make it accessible only by direct connection" then it makes sense. If you mean "disconnect the Internet" it doesn't.

[bluedigger]

4. It sounds just like the Y2K scare.

I sold a lot of camping gear for the Army-Navy store where I was working at the time. Ka-Ching!

[RebelOne]

21. Yes, I was fooled by the Y-2 scare

and bought tons of canned goods that I still have.

[HomerRamone]

5. That again?

[MattSh]

13. Ha!

Best response of the day!

[jtuck004]

7. Maybe they are hidden among these...

http://www.digitalattackmap.com/#anim=1&color=0&country=ALL&time=16380&view=map

Different kind of attack, though similar things might be part of those.

But attacks are 24x7. From everywhere.

I can imagine the Russians getting on and getting in a fight with the Chinese who were already there.

[newthinking]

8. Of course if we have another crash it will be the "Russians" fault?

We are going to have another one, you simply can't print money and expect other countries to return labor and resources in exchange for paper forever.

This is all coming off like a self fulfilling prophecy. Do we end up blaming the Russians for the next crash (which will likely be a duzy?). Then use it to get the population to go to war with Russia?

[Odin2005]

10. FEAR, FEAR, FEAR! GIVE UP YOUR PRIVACY SO WE CAN PROTECT YOU!!! -NSA

[99th_Monkey]

12. If NSA spent their time stopping this shit

instead of spying on Americans ... oh never mind.

[Downwinder]

15. Good thing we have a National Security Agency to keep everything secure.

[leftyladyfrommo]

16. And that's the big problem with having everything

run by computers. It leaves us incredibly vulnerable to this kind of attack. They could shut this country completely down.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

17. I misread this as "Russian Hookers Have Inflitrated the US" nt

[JudyM]

18. This is like a teaser for a Die Hard film or something. Unreal. nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. Of course our hackers have probably infiltrated

All the Russian systems, too.