"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:

Perhaps you missed the excellent Frontline (PBS) show about 8 months
ago, in
which they discussed how vulnerable our infrastructure is to computer
attacks.

The same people who told us that the whole thing would shut down on Jan
1st 2000 at 12:00 Am.


Same people? Which ones, Dave? Names, please. If a person says "I was hired
to hack into Niagara Mohawk's system and I did it in 8 hours, undetected",
and he says this while in front of a TV camera, sitting in a NYMO facility
with the CEO next to him, please give us a Dave Hall reason to doubt what
the guy is saying.

Please cleanse your response of any nonsense related to the "millennium
bug".


For viewers who just don't get it, they emphasized that there are
quite a few utilities whose products (water, electricity, gas) can no
longer
be controlled quickly by manually turning valves or throwing switches.
They
interviewed people whose job it was to purposely attack computer
systems.
They succeeded more often than they would've liked.

I've been hearing this for many years. I can't believe that these
utility companies have not invested in security systems (firewalls,
encryption, virus scanning etc.), to make the possibility less likely.
Also, some former "hackers" are now making tons of money consulting
security solutions to protect companies from other hackers.

"I can't believe..." - that's the key phrase in your response. You live a
life based on faith. If it only affects you, fine. But, the fact is that
despite security measures, hackers WERE able to access utility systems. In
the same Frontline show, a group of programmers were able to break into DOD
systems and place an annoying message on some rather important workstations.



So, don't assume anything about the cause of ANY infrastructure failure
until all the facts are in.

It sounds like you guys already are. Chuck seems to think the terrorism
angle is the most likely, and from the sounds of it, you do too.

The bottom line is, absent of evidence to the contrary, assume it was a
simple breakdown in infrastructure. It's not responsible for us to
assume the worst until proven otherwise.


I am assuming nothing about the blackout. But, it appears YOU are assuming
that our enemies, for one reason or another, do not have the skills to do
what white hackers from around here can do.