U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies

U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies

online.wsj.com

The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.

The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government's chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
cbs4.com
www.foxnews.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
KILL-SWITCH must be given to OBAMA
The Hydra called Nalco, and the Den of Vipers -- The CorExit conspiracy

[edit on 7/8/2010 by dbloch7986]

So now the NSA is OPENLY and OFFICIALLY spying on networks within the United States. This is another attempt to seize control over another aspect of our lives. It looks like quickly and without mercy those that are in power on our planet are locking down their positions within every aspect of our lives. Couple this with the internet "killswitch" given to Obama and with the Corexit and Nalco consipracy that was written about earlier today and you will understand what I mean.

I fear we have little time left to enjoy our freedoms.

online.wsj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

THIS is what we used to see post after post here on ATS about how Bush and the Republicans were going to take away our freedoms and constiututional rights.

Well, look at who is actually doing it. That's right, obama and the liberals.

And don't bother posting any BS about how Bush put this all in place, because Mr. "messiah of change" promised there would be change in the way government did things and easily could have turned and walked away from all this - but obama didn't.



[edit on 7/8/2010 by centurion1211]

reply to post by centurion1211


I respecct your opinion, but I try to stay away from partisan politics because to me it is all a distraction. Both parties work for the the same people. It makes no sense to side with one or the other. To me it is mere coincidence that it turned out to be undert the Democrat's watch.

Sounds like a plot from the TV series '24'.

What is it about the 24 writers, that they think it makes sense for major industrial facilities to have their every function hijacked via the Internet? They did it later in season 7 with that chemical plant that was cyber-attacked. A near disaster occurred due to the hackers locking shut the safety valves, causing a dangerous over pressure in some kind of pressure vessel. Now here's the thing about pressurised systems. They should have on them pressure safety valves, which are purely mechanical in operation. They are set to open at a specific pressure using a hi-tech component called a spring. When they open, they allow the pressure from the system to move into a relief system.

Now in season 4, we have hackers taking control of nuclear power stations and causing them to suffer a meltdown. Absolutely no technical details are provided of how this is done, which given the overall intelligence of the plot, is probably for the best. The operators can't shut them down, leaving it up to the smart people at CTU to beat the evil hacking.

This cannot be done. Nuclear power reactors are not remote control toy cars. The mechanisms needed to shut them down are mechanical. The control rods need to be inserted. This is done by stopping the active forces that are holding them out. If you cut the power to the control system, the reactor automatically scrams. Cutting the power can be done by pulling fuses. No amount of code is going to change that.

Once the reactor is shut down, the only threat to fuel integrity is decay heat from the highly radioactive fission products that have just been produced (it is this heat, which was responsible for the meltdown at Three Mile Island). To control this, cooling needs to be maintained, but in a crunch this can be done using diesel powered water pumps.

freedomforfission.blogspot.com...

I work at a nuclear plant, in the Design Engineering section.

Exactly zero percent of the control system is Windows based, networked out beyond the fence by any connection scheme, or hackable in any way.....even from within the plant.

www.blogger.com...

In conclusion this has absolutely nothing about keeping the public safe from Nuclear meltdowns or chemical disasters simply because those systems are completely isolated from the Internet. It does however has everything to do with protecting the private companies and the government from malicious attacks and also systems that are actually connected to the Internet running. I don't have a problem with that, but at least don't like about it by mentioning Nuclear Plants.

Also unless I read the article incorrectly, the NSA wants to spy on mission critical networks to detect attacks, meaining they will spy on air traffic control networks to detect and stop attacks, so I doubt you have to worry about yourself getting spied on.


[edit on 8/7/2010 by C0bzz]

This is the same as I post last night buddy:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I can see $$$$ potential to game the market if one works for the NSA!

I can see $$$$ potential to game the market if one works for the NSA!

sorry for the double post my computer froze up for a second. If possible delete this thanks!

[edit on 8-7-2010 by bubbabuddha]

Originally posted by StarTraveller
This is the same as I post last night buddy:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Apologies my friend. I did not search well enough I suppose. I just looked for the title of this article. for me.