• Security hole exposes utilities to Internet attack

    Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems remotely manage computers that control machinery, including water supply valves, industrial baking equipment, and security systems at nuclear power plants; security vulnerability is discovered in SCADA — and patched, but other vulnerabilities may remain

  • Cyber mishap causes nuclear power plant shutdown

    Worries about critical infrastructure vulnerabilities: The move to SCADA systems boosts efficiency at utilities because it allows workers to operate equipment remotely, but experts say it also exposes these once-closed systems to cyber attacks

  • Top ten rules for IT security

    Uniloc offers ten useful rules to keep the organization’s networks safe from intruders and hackers;

  • Flood protection call for utilities

    Twelve months after the devastating U.K. floods a government agency says much more must be done to tackle the vulnerability of buildings such as power stations and hospitals to flooding

  • Increasing attacks on oil infrastructure in Nigeria

    Rebels in the Nigerian Delta are increasing their attacks on the country’s oil infrastructure — and lately have been targeting sea-based targets auch as tankers and oil rigs

  • Killing Internet worms dead

    Internet worms flood the Internet with junk traffic, and at their most benign, they overload computer networks and shut them down; Buckeyes researchers find new way to combat worms

  • Green protection against terrorist attacks

    Here is a solution which combines responses to two great concerns of the time: terrorism and the environment; Georgia company offers an environmentally friendly anti-terrorist vehicle barrier

  • Glaring gaps in network security, II

    Specialists in penetration testing take six hours to hack the FBI; hacking the networks of Fortune 500 companies takes much less time; even companies which have been Sarbanes-Oxley compliant for several years have been hacked within twenty minutes, with the hackers taking control of the business; these hackers proved they could actively change general ledgers and do other critical tasks

  • Chinese hacking threatens U.S. critical infrastructure

    U.S. government networks, and the computer systems of U.S. and Western European companies, are under broad and systemic Chinese hacking campaign; in the case of private Western companies, China steals industrial secrets and patent information in order to hasten its rise to a position of global economic hegemony; in the case of U.S. critical infrastructure — for example, control of electric power stations, several of which Chinese hackers have managed to disable — China may be preparing for more sinister contingencies

  • Glaring gaps in network security, I

    Specialists in penetration testing take six hours to hack the FBI; hacking the networks of Fortune 500 companies takes much less time; even companies which have been Sarbanes-Oxley compliant for several years have been hacked within twenty minutes, with the hackers taking control of the business; these hackers proved they could actively change general ledgers and do other critical tasks

  • Is the Internet "Critical Infrastructure"?

    The Internet’s architecture is optimized to be cheap and ubiquitous; such a network is never going to be perfectly secure or reliable; transactions that absolutely have to be done correctly and on time need to be done on a dedicated network

  • Nigerian group threatens attacks

    Today is the one-year anniversary since Umaru Yar’Adua was inaugurated as president of Nigeria; MEND, the leading rebel group in the Niger Delta, said yesterday that it would launch a series of bombings against oil installations to mark the day

  • Grasshopper robot breaks high-jump record

    Researchers develop small - very small: it is 5 centimeters tall and weighs just 7 grams — hopping robot; swarms of such hopping robots could spread out to explore disaster areas, or even the surfaces of other planets

  • Power plants open to hacker attack

    Power plants, dams, and many other critical infrastructure assets are controlled by a system called supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA; a Boston technology specialist finds serious vulnerability in the system

  • Civilian nuclear facilities in Sichuan confirmed safe

    The Chinese government has identified 32 radioactive sources in the earthquake-devastated Sichuan area - hospitals, research centers, factories, but no power plants; 30 sources have already been located and removed; the two remaining sources have been cordoned off and are being excavated