Computer threats to American infrastructure
April 8, 2009

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that US intelligence agencies are concerned about the significant number of intrusions into infrastructure-related computer networks by attackers from abroad. They are particularly suspicious of intrusions from China and Russia, but the sheer number, which include cyberattacks against electrical power systems, water, and sewage systems, have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fix, and not all have even been identified. As more systems have come to integrate measuring equipment like toxic-gas sensors and flowmeters with operating equipment like water-control gates and pumps, the potential for problems has grown. However, many of our projects are still quite independent of external control -- our lift stations, for instance, are capable of sending signals to central control systems or using dialers to report on trouble, but they are also quite capable of running independently and autonomously, entirely off the communications grid.

April 2009
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last revised April 2009