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CIA Confirms Cyber Attack Caused Multi-City Power Outage

January 18, 2008

According the SANS Institute, the CIA has disclosed that several critical infrastructures have been hit with cyberattacks recently.

SANS FLASH
CIA Confirms Cyber Attack Caused Multi-City Power Outage
On Wednesday, in New Orleans, US Central Intelligence Agency senior
analyst Tom Donohue told a gathering of 300 US, UK, Swedish, and Dutch
government officials and engineers and security managers from electric,
water, oil & gas and other critical industry asset owners from all
across North America, that "We have information, from multiple regions
outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed
by extortion demands.  We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of
these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge.  We have
information that cyber attacks have been used to disrupt power equipment
in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the
disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities.  We do not
know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions
through the Internet."

According to Mr. Donohue, the CIA actively and thoroughly considered the
benefits and risks of making this information public, and came down on
the side of disclosure.

Delegates at the meeting shared information on how attackers are eluding
current defenses and on promising practices for mitigating the most
critical vulnerabilities. Link—>

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