Monday, January 20, 2014

Global Nuclear Insecurity



A story reported in The New York Times stopped me cold:

N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/us/nsa-effort-pries-open-computers-not-connected-to-internet.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20140115&_r=0

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.

The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target....

Majia here: Holy Cow! Computers now can be hacked by radio waves that are miles from the target!

I'm sure the technology must not be new since its being reported in the mainstream press.

What it does explain is why cybersecurity is now such a pressing issue. Remember when Richard Clark was warning about cyber-security threats? See here.

Think about it. Anyone with this technology could hack NUCLEAR PLANTS and CHEMICAL PLANTS and cause them to explode entirely remotely.

Both the Chinese and the Americans have the technology so no doubt Russia and Israel also have it.

We think we are so smart with our toys but all we've done is feed our most base and anti-social instincts.





PREVIOUS POSTS ON CYBER-SECURITY ISSUES


Majia's Blog: US Power Plants (Including Nuclear Plants) Vulnerable ...

Majia's Blog: Cyber-Weapons Beyond Control

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Majia's Blog: Stuxnet Infected Chevron's Corp. Network in 2010

Majia's Blog: Stuxnet Work of US and Israel

Majia's Blog: New Computer Virus Larger Than Stuxnet Identified

Majia's Blog: Headline from Jan 26, 2011: If that is Stuxnet, What ...


5 comments:

  1. Cheaters are the winners. Baseball, bicycling, banking, etc. The top world positions belong to unindicted felons. So, as a number of people have noted the unethical drive out the ethical, because the only way to survive after a while is to become a cheater, a successful criminal. Thus, as you clearly point out, any new high technology will immediately fall into the hands of the unscrupulous who will proceed to use it to their gangster oriented purposes. The rule of law has become to rule the law in your favor. The corporations rule the government.
    When it comes to nuclear power the profits rest with corporations who are quite willing to risk a catastrophic event. Currently the government for fear of upsetting these powerful corporate entities and the Japanese gov will simply not go to the trouble to find out something it might need to hide. For example, we really do not know the over all effects of the nuclear bomb testing back in the '50's and '60's. So now that lack of information is used to quiet anyone who starts " fear mongering" about Fukushima. Maybe millions got cancer as a result--but fortunately there were no expensive studies that might have revealed that shocking fact; so now there is safety for the corporations and gov. To me it seems intuitively obvious that Fukushima is a genuine nightmare that will not just go away because a herd of docile scientists say it is no problem.
    I think it is interesting that the people we used to call primitive and savage, the Native Americans, were always against the nuclear tests!
    I think it is all tied together. The banking scandals, the nuclear power industry, Obamacare, gun control, whatever, is all aimed at shoveling money and power into the hands of the Elite. But I think they have seriously miscalculated this time. I think we know that we have a potentially unsolvable situation on the northeast coast of Japan that will only get worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are so right that it is the cheaters that are rewarded.

      If only virtue was the commodity that mattered.

      Delete
  2. Majia - I wouldn't worry about someone planting a bug in a computer and blowing up a nuke plant or a chemical plant.

    It's way easier than that.

    I'm not going to mention how, but it is so simple a student could figure it out easily.

    Can you imagine that the entire country's economy is at risk to something so simple that a couple of high school sophomores could figure it out?

    Ludicrous - yes but it's the truth..

    James

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed, I think that less than a $15k budget could get the job done. But lets not encourage that.

      Delete
  3. Please visit: Big-Lies.org. and NukeLies.org.

    Vast new horizons will open up for you.

    Best Regards,
    b

    ReplyDelete

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