full-disclosure - Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout

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Message-ID: <009b01c36752$0123f9e0$2b02a8c0@dcopley>
From: dcopley at eeye.com (Drew Copley)
Subject: Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: full-disclosure-admin@...ts.netsys.com 
> [mailto:full-disclosure-admin@...ts.netsys.com] On Behalf Of 
> Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu
> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 7:09 PM
> To: Michael Gale
> Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.netsys.com
> Subject: Re: [Full-Disclosure] Al Qaida claims responsibility 
> for blackout 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 16:09:21 EDT, Michael Gale 
> <michael@...esuperman.com>  said:
> 
> > Ya right - I find it amusing that every time something 
> "bad" happens 
> > there is a group in the Middle East ready to take credit for it. I 
> > believe that the blaster worm had a better chance at bring down the 
> > power plants then Al Qaida or some other primitive group.
> ...
> > If they are taking responsibility for the power outage then 
> the plant 
> > would of definitely exploded.
> 
> Well.. the *official* story is that a power line sagged into a tree.

There is no official story, yet, from what I see...

Google News on Story, sorted by date, 'probe continues':
http://news.google.com/news?q=blackout+tree&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&edition=u
s&scoring=d

> 
> Let's see.. some good stout non-conducting rope.. toss it 
> over the line.. hook it to a truck.. and help it out just a 
> *little* bit...

In 1999, there were two primary terrorist attacks targetted against the
United States. One of these involved blowing up the LA airport. This
plot was stopped at the Canadian border. A second plot was not as well
publicized, as it did not involve extremist Muslims but Neo-Nazi
militia. This plot involved cutting one of the main power lines to
California.

The entire grid is mapped out, and much of this data is online. The
weaknesses of these systems are also written up quite a bit. This system
is definitely open to a wide variety of sabotage. As for Al Qaeda, while
it is unlikely they were involved, they do have the capabilities. 

Despite all of this, these very weaknesses also show that there are many
potential points of failure because mere hardware issues... Because of
environment issues, etc. 

> 
> Hmm.. anybody know where the Presidential motorcade was at 
> the time? ;)  There was a thing on NANOG recently about a 
> spotter plane getting in trouble for flying a route along a 
> transmission line, but he got within 30 miles of the motorcade....
> 
> And of course the information is published as an alert to 
> pilots about the closed airspace - which means the Bad Guys 
> know when/where they don't have to worry about spotter planes.

Security is security is security -- it is almost always dismal...
Physical or "cyber".

> 
>