Russia’s ‘Doomsday’ Military Plane Almost Ready for Flight

By the end of this year “Voronezh aircraft factory” will give Russia’s Ministry of Defense an airborne command system based on the upgraded Il-96-400 military aircraft, the press service of the military reported.

“During this year, the factory is delivering to us a specialized airborne command system based on the Il-96-400. According to the plan, the contract for the AN-148 aircraft is being implemented,” military website RG.ru reported Deputy Defense Minister, Yuri Borisov, as saying.

US Won’t Be Prepared for Cyber Attack for Another Two Years

Earlier this week, representatives of the US Cyber Command (CC) told the Joint Chiefs that the US military won’t be able to fend of a major cyberattack at least until 2019.

Brig. Gen. Charles L. Moore Jr., Joint Chiefs of Staff deputy director for global operations, told the House Armed Services Committee that, “We don’t have the scale or the complexity to truly represent a realistic and relevant threat, the ones that we’re truly trying to train to.”

FBI Warns of Cyber Threat to Electric Grid

DHS intel report downplayed cyber threat to power grid

Three months after a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report downplayed the threat of a cyber attack against the U.S. electrical grid, DHS and the FBI began a nationwide program warning of the dangers faced by U.S. utilities from damaging cyber attacks like the recent hacking against Ukraine’s power grid.

The nationwide campaign by DHS and the FBI began March 31 and includes 12 briefings and online webinars for electrical power infrastructure companies and others involved in security, with sessions in eight U.S. cities, including a session next week in Washington.

U.S. Power Grid Being Hit With ‘Increasing’ Hacking Attacks, Government Warns

One can only imagine how much more the threat is multiplied because of the “patch and pray” culture America was warned about as early as 1998. Nobody in the industry cares until after the problem happens, then they stick a band-aid on it.

 

Potential to ‘take down’ U.S. power grids, water systems and other critical infrastructure

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While experts have long signaled that the U.S. power grid and related systems are vulnerable to physical attacks by terrorists and other individuals, the U.S. government is now warning that sensitive computer systems that maintain the grid are increasingly being attacked, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that was not made public until the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) disclosed it this month.

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These types of computer viruses are able to comb internal systems for private information in a clandestine manner; they can also be used to wrest control of certain computers away from their owners.

“In recent years, new threats have materialized as new vulnerabilities have come to light, and a number of major concerns have emerged about the resilience and security of the nation’s electric power system,” the report says. “In particular, the cyber security of the electricity grid has been a focus of recent efforts to protect the integrity of the electric power system.”

Turkish grid under suspected massive cyber attack

Prolonged electricity outages in 40 Turkish cities, including Ankara and Istanbul, raised the suspicion that the country had Tuesday come under cyber attack.

NOAA Employee Charged With Computer Breach Met Senior Chinese Official in Beijing

This is a new development in what was previously posted, showing the level of access and its official state support.

 

A federal weather service employee charged with stealing sensitive infrastructure data from an Army Corps of Engineers database met a Chinese government official in Beijing, according to court documents that reveal the case to be part of an FBI probe of Chinese economic espionage.

Xiafen “Sherry” Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office in Ohio, was arrested in October and charged in a federal grand jury indictment with illegally accessing the Army’s National Inventory of Dams (NID).

The NID is a sensitive database containing information on all U.S. dams. U.S. intelligence officials have said the database was compromised by Chinese hackers in 2013 as part of covert efforts by Beijing to gather sensitive information on critical U.S. infrastructure for possible use in a future conflict.

Has New York’s traffic light system been HACKED? Researcher claims to be able to control Manhattan traffic (and says the same technique will work around the world)

• Researcher claims to be able to control light patterns in Manhattan
• Say technique can be used in all major cities
• Uses special $4,000 router to control traffic sensors embedded in roads

A security expert claims to have uncovered a major flaw in the traffic system in in major cities around the world including London and New York.

Cesar Cerrudo, an Argentinian security researcher with IoActive, says he can control traffic lights and even reroute traffic.