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View Full Version : Does the MSM's "Cyberwar" Actually Exist?




Kludge
08-12-2011, 01:56 AM
"Rich Kulawiec points us to the news of Dillon Beresford of NSS Labs recently discovering (and revealing) that the Siemens control systems targeted by Stuxnet have massive security holes, including a hardcoded username/password combo ("basisk" for both, in case you were wondering). As Kulawiec noted:


We have been treated, over the past few years, to an increasing chorus of hysteria and hype about "cyberwar". Some of that has come from governments eager to justify their increasing invasion of citizen privacy. Some of that has come from government contractors, eager to score more $100M do-nothing contracts. And since Stuxnet has come to light, it's been held up repeatedly as an example of the extreme cleverness of attackers.

But while Stuxnet is pretty darn clever, that's not the real problem. The real problem is that the incompetent morons at Siemens allowed this piece of crap to get out the door and into production environments. Thus the storyline isn't so much about the devious and subtle craft of Stuxnet's creators, as it is about the jaw-dropping negligence of Siemens: how could their QA miss this? How could they allow such a rudimentary, obvious mistake to pass?

We don't need to spend billions (or trillions) on elaborate cyberwar initiatives. We need to stop making fundamental mistakes. We need to stop doing the stupid things that we KNOW are stupid.

But that kind of stuff isn't quite as sexy as declaring "cyberwar" and asking for billions of dollars from the government."

Written by Mike Masnick of Techdirt. Original article with comments and links @ http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110804/11314715390/are-we-talking-about-cyberwar-massive-incompetence.shtml

DamianTV
08-12-2011, 04:19 AM
I think the war exists, but the war is on us to surrender more and more, with the intention of finally having Complete and Total Censorship of the Internet.

The perceived threat comes from Terrorists using the Internet to attack critical points in infrastructure, such as Power Grids. Some people will respond to that Perceived Threat by agreeing that people should have an Internet Drivers License, which, of course, will not make anyone any safer. It will however, be used, and then abused, as a source of revenue, and prevent people without permission from being able to go online.

As the Ex Owner of an ISP, I know what I am talking about when it comes to Security. And the funny thing is that the best way to secure yourself from threats on the internet is to not go on the internet. Now, why do Power Companies need all of of their equipment to be accessible via the internet to begin with? Routing IP addresses is over a lot of peoples heads, but not as difficult as it sounds. Now, if any one has been paying attention to Technology News, we've had Internet Over Power Line Technology around for a while. Why do they need to let someone in Kazakhstan have access to the Same Grid when they can make it a little more localized?

The simple answer is they dont really need it. It is an excuse. It is a reason they cooked up. The real purpose is to be able to Monitor what you do with their Smart Meters, and Prevent Access to the Internet PERIOD.

And for the record, Justin Beiber has a stupid haircut.

pcosmar
08-12-2011, 09:19 AM
We don't need to spend billions (or trillions) on elaborate cyberwar initiatives. We need to stop making fundamental mistakes. We need to stop doing the stupid things that we KNOW are stupid.


But that kind of stuff isn't quite as sexy as declaring "cyberwar" and asking for billions of dollars from the government."


Some good points, but it is also wise to look at where Suxnet came from.
Who created it and why.

Last night we had a presidential candidate praising it (not by name) and saying it was a good work.

That needs to change as well.