Full Disclosure mailing list archives
RE: The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 16:26:53 -0400
Hi, Given that the power companies are still looking into the chain of events that caused the 2003 Blackout, I think it is premature to count in or out any cause. We might be looking at an equipment failure, human error, an insider attack, weather problems, cyberattack, sabotage, etc. Speculation is a lot of fun many times, but it should be based on the facts. Here are few articles that covered a news conference held today on the investigation so far on the causes behind the blackout: http://www.msnbc.com/news/297115.asp?0si=-&cp1=1 http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3064401 http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/15/power.outage/index.html Richard M. Smith http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com -----Original Message----- From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com [mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com] On Behalf Of Bernie, CTA Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 12:21 PM To: full-disclosure () lists netsys com Subject: [Full-disclosure] The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering It is ridiculous to accept that a lightning strike could knock out the grid. There are many redundant fault, limit and Voltage- Surge Protection safeguards and related instrumentation and switchgear installed at the distribution centers and along the Power Grid that would have tripped to prevent or otherwise divert such a major outage. I believe that the outage was caused by the blaster, or its mutation, besieged upon the respective vulnerability in the systems (SCADA and otherwise) running MS 2000 or XP, located different points along the Grid. Some of these systems are accessible via the Internet, while others are accessible by POTS dialup, or private Frame relay and dedicated connectivity. _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering Bernie, CTA (Aug 15)
- RE: The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering Richard M. Smith (Aug 15)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering Myers, Marvin (Aug 15)
- Re: The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering Darren Reed (Aug 16)
- RE: The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering Christopher F. Herot (Aug 15)
- RE: The Grid, Blaster v. Poor Security Engineering Myers, Marvin (Aug 18)