Archive for the 'Infrastructure' Category
UK: Drivers Urged Not to Panic Buy Petrol as Refinery Workers Strike
April 24th, 2008Above ground factors… Via: Guardian: Drivers were today urged not to panic buy fuel after talks to avert a strike at one of Scotland’s largest oil refineries failed. A two-day walkout by up to 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery is set to begin on Sunday after negotiations between the Unite union and refinery management […]
Possible UK Refinery Strike
April 21st, 2008Just in case UK readers aren’t already keeping an eye on this… Via: Bloomberg: U.K. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks warned of “serious consequences” for Britain if a threatened strike at Scotland’s only oil refinery halts production by the end of the week. “The last thing the public wants is fuel shortages,” with prices at record […]
Japanese Oil Tanker Attacked Off Yemen
April 21st, 2008Monitoring… Via: Bloomberg: A Nippon Yusen K.K. crude oil tanker was fired upon by a small boat off the coast of Yemen. There were no injuries. The oil carrier named Takayama was hit at 4:40 a.m. Yemeni time by a “rocket-like weapon”, the Japanese Coast Guard said today in Tokyo. The vessel, which carries a […]
U.S. Defense Contractor Found that a Single Compromised Windows Box had Been Secretly Siphoning Information to a Server in Mainland China for 18 Months
April 13th, 2008Via: Wired: The attackers relied on e-mails tempting the victim to open the attachments, in some cases by presenting them as résumés from job seekers. But when the target opened the attachment, the application would usually crash, while the embedded code covertly installed a keylogger and data-stealing software that scooped up documents anywhere on the […]
White Hat Team Quickly Owned Power Company; Could Have Shut Down Grid
April 10th, 2008Via: Network World: Cracking a power company network and gaining access that could shut down the grid is simple, a security expert told an RSA audience, and he has done so in less than a day. Ira Winkler, a penetration-testing consultant, says he and a team of other experts took a day to set up […]
Pipeline Blast Cuts Iraq’s Southern Oil Exports
March 27th, 2008Via: Reuters: Saboteurs blew up a major oil pipeline in Iraq on Thursday, sharply reducing exports from the south of the country for the first time in years, a South Oil Company (SOC) official told Reuters. The resulting blaze was quickly extinguished and officials said efforts were under way to get shipments back to normal […]
ABC News Soundbite Version of NSA Intercept Story
March 26th, 2008For those of you who aren’t willing to wade through a post like, NSA, AT&T and the NarusInsight Intercept Suite, and the related documents, here is a condensed version:
Indian Biogas Digester
February 28th, 2008Outstanding! I’d like to order one. Via: Fortune: Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India’s […]
Loss of Wind Causes Texas Power Grid Emergency
February 28th, 2008In other words, this is the second major anomalous power outage in less than a day. (See: South Florida incident.) Via: Reuters: A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said […]
Millions Lost Power in Florida
February 27th, 2008So fragile. Via: Miami Herald: Power has been restored to the vast majority of the millions of South Floridians and other state residents who endured a major blackout Tuesday — a failure caused by a fire in a Miami-Dade County substation, according to utility officials. Virtually everyone in South Florida had power by 5:30 p.m. […]
