Cyber Terror — From predictive Programing to Realtime

Cyber Attacks on Utility Companies Now a Reality
By Shepard Ambellas
theintelhub.com
September 29, 2012
Just like a scene out of an old Bruce Willis flick, predictive programing has now caught up with itself as the true orchestrators behind the curtain can profiteer from such crisis.
An excerpt from a 2008 article posted on NationalTerrorAlert.com demonstrates Michael Chertoffs’ insight into such a crime;
Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, said that computer-based attacks had the ability to cripple financial institutions and government networks and that the threat posed by cyber-crime is “on a par” with the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“We take threats to the cyber world as seriously as we take threats to the material world,” Mr Chertoff told a gathering of security industry experts in San Francisco.
Chertoff now owns the Chertoff Group and fights cyber crime amongst other things. Here is a clip from their about us section of the official website;
As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff worked closely with America’s most experienced intelligence experts and security professionals. Now a select group of them have joined him to form The Chertoff Group.
The Chertoff Group provides business and government leaders with the same kind of high-level, strategic thinking and diligent execution that have kept the American homeland and its people safe since 9/11.
Cyber terror started out as a far fetched idea for a popular Bruce Willis movie series “Die Hard”.
In 2007, the film Die Hard 4 - Live Free or Die Hard contained a little predictive programing for future events to come.
In the film terrorists hack the main grid and are able to inflict doom on the population by controlling resources and communications.
Now more recently in Canada a utility company was targeted by cyber terrorists based out of China.
The Daily Star reported;
Canada said on Friday it was aware of an attempt by hackers to target a domestic energy company, the second time in 24 hours Ottawa had acknowledged a cyber security attack against a Canadian firm.
In both cases the Canadian government declined to comment on reports which suggested a Chinese connection.
The news comes at an awkward time for Canada’s Conservative government, which is deciding whether to approve a landmark $15.1 billion bid by China’s CNOOC Ltd to take over Canadian oil producer Nexen Inc.
Some Conservative legislators are wary of the proposed CNOOC takeover, in part because of what they say are China’s unfair business practices.
Ottawa revealed the second case after being asked about a security report from computer manufacturer Dell Inc, which said it had tracked hackers who targeted a number of firms around the world, including an unnamed energy company in Canada. Dell said on its website that the hackers had used a Chinese service provider based in Beijing Province.
Financial cyber crimes are starting to hit home as well.
Paul Rothman reported today;
Yesterday, CNN called it the biggest cyber-attack in history. And chances are, your bank’s website has been affected. In fact, since Sept. 19, coordinated Denial of Service (DoS) attacks have shut down the websites of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, while Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and PNC Bank were crippled just this week.
Rest easy, your financial information is safe. These DoS attacks are designed to cripple the websites themselves — criminal hackers use their multitude of computers and malware to flood the targeted site with massive amounts of traffic until it is overwhelmed and thus shut down. The resulting downtime is damaging in countless ways.
The Islamist group Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, a military wing of Hamas, publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks in what it called “Operation Ababil.” The group has launched attacks in the past, albeit far less coordinated than the recent batch; however, the group also claims the attacks will continue until the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims” is completely erased from the Internet.
As the rhetoric ramps up I imagine we will see more cyber attacks in the near future to further usher in a control grid on the (as Henry Kissinger would say) “useless eaters”.