Archive for the 'Infrastructure' Category
U.S. Financial Institutions Involved with Three Week Bird Flu Pandemic Simulation
September 25th, 2007Liquidity problems? What liquidity problems? Via: AP: WASHINGTON Don’t be alarmed if your local bank teller is looking a bit sickly over the next three weeks. It is only a cyber-illness. Hundreds of banks and other financial institutions are participating in the largest test of its kind ever conducted to ensure the nation’s financial system […]
Who Needs Hackers?
September 13th, 2007Via: New York Times: NOTHING was moving. International travelers flying into Los Angeles International Airport — more than 17,000 of them — were stuck on planes for hours one day in mid-August after computers for the United States Customs and Border Protection agency went down and stayed down for nine hours. Hackers? Nope. Though it […]
MEXICO GAS LINE EXPLOSIONS FORCE MAJOR FACTORIES TO CLOSE DOWN
September 12th, 2007I can’t think of a time in history when the individual insurgent has had such an incredible asymmetric advantage over his opponent. Hierarchical dominator systems—now enjoying primacy on a global scale—exist atop a delicate grid of undefended energy and information infrastructures. With just a bit of intelligent planning, today’s insurgent can turn a small improvised […]
Mexico: Insurgents Attack Six Oil and Gas Pipelines
September 11th, 2007Undefended critical infrastructure… Via: Reuters: Explosions rocked Mexico on Monday as attacks on six pipelines disrupted oil and gas supplies and forced thousands from their homes, just weeks after leftist rebels set off a string of pipeline bombs. Huge billowing flames lit the night sky after the blasts in the early hours of the morning. […]
Asymmetric Warfare: Causing Incredible Economic Damage by Simply Smashing Machines
September 4th, 2007In 1996, when I suggested to a crusty, old professor of mine that crude, physical attacks on electricity and communications infrastructures could cause economic damage on par with conventional military attacks, but at a fraction of the cost, both in terms of money and manpower required, he chuckled. I wrote the term paper anyway. The […]
Saudis Set Up 35,000 Strong Force to Guard Oil Infrastructure
August 27th, 2007Support the Troops! Via: Financial Times: Saudi Arabia has begun setting up a 35,000-strong security force to protect its oil infrastructure from potential attacks. The move underlines the kingdom’s growing concern about its oil installations after threats from al-Qaeda to attack facilities in the Gulf, as well as rising tensions between Iran and the US. […]
Wells Fargo: WTF?
August 22nd, 2007I’d really like to know more about the nature of what actually happened with this Wells Fargo disaster. Redundancy is one of the main characteristics of mission critical systems. Wipe one box off the face of the earth, and there could be one, ten or dozens more, in different locations, waiting to take up the […]
Fiber-Optic Cables Near Cleveland Sabotaged
August 22nd, 2007Via: Network World: ISPs in the U.S. experienced a service slowdown Monday after fiber-optic cables near Cleveland were apparently sabotaged by gunfire. TeliaSonera, which lost the northern leg of its U.S. network to the cut, said that the outage began around 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night. When technicians pulled up the affected cable, […]
Barcelona Hit by Major Power Outage
July 23rd, 2007Muy frágil. Via: Washington Post: MADRID, Spain — A major power outage hit Barcelona on Monday, snarling traffic, hobbling public transportation and knocking out electricity to homes and businesses in much of Spain’s second-largest city. The outage began around 11 a.m. and affected traffic signals in much of the city center as well as several […]
Russian Energy Pipeline Giants to Form Corporate Armies
July 15th, 2007Via: mnweekly: Lawmakers voted Wednesday to give Russia’s natural-gas and oil pipeline monopolies the right to set up armed security units to protect the country’s energy infrastructure. One lawmaker said the move could lead to “a multitude of corporate armies.” Instead of hiring private security firms, state-controlled gas giant OAO Gazprom and oil pipeline monopoly […]
