Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

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SnoBrdr
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Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by SnoBrdr »

The state-sanctioned Russian hackers suspected of meddling in the 2016 presidential election recently tried to hack into the U.S. electricity grid through a Vermont utility, raising already high concerns over domestic cyber security, officials said Friday.

The hackers got into a laptop at the Burlington Electric Department using the same malware code that U.S. intelligence officials have tied to the hacks targeting the Hillary Clinton campaign earlier this year, a spokesman for the utility company said in a statement.

"We took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alerted federal officials of this finding," the spokesperson said, adding the targeted computer was not connected to the grid at the time of the hack. "Our team is working with federal officials to trace this malware and prevent any other attempts to inflitrate utility systems."

Officials at the Vermont company first discovered the breach after running a system-wide scan requested by the Department of Homeland Security in light of a Thursday report from the Obama administration outlining Russia's alleged role in the election hacks.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.2929208
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by freeski »

Russia doesn't like Vermont because of it's extreme form of communism.
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XtremeJibber2001
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by XtremeJibber2001 »

Good thing we kicked out a few spies from the USA ... seems Russia is taking it seriously :roll: :roll:
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by Bubba »

Russia also hacked Mariah Carey in Times Square last night.
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by freeski »

Bubba wrote:Russia also hacked Mariah Carey in Times Square last night.
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by Bubba »

Post Walks Back Burlington Electric Hacking Story
Posted By Paul Heintz on Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 9:15 AM

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/a ... king-story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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SnoBrdr
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by SnoBrdr »

Bubba wrote:Post Walks Back Burlington Electric Hacking Story
Posted By Paul Heintz on Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 9:15 AM

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/a ... king-story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That was always the question that was not answered in the original story.

Altho I can't believe that the infected laptop was not connected to the main server.

What the story also fails to mention is that the code that was supposedly used was actually developed y the USA AKA Stuxnet.

It was released onto the whole world by the Israelis.

Altho this cannot be proven as the USA has never admitted that they used the code to attack Iran, the Israelis never admitted that they used it wo the USA's permission ro hat the Russians then got it from the Israeli release.

So if you believe all this and at this point there is no proof either way, it's all the fault of Obama and his people.

Watch the docu Zero Day and it will fill you in a lot more on what was done by Stuxnet.
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XtremeJibber2001
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by XtremeJibber2001 »

SnoBrdr wrote:
Bubba wrote:Post Walks Back Burlington Electric Hacking Story
Posted By Paul Heintz on Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 9:15 AM

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/a ... king-story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That was always the question that was not answered in the original story.

Altho I can't believe that the infected laptop was not connected to the main server.

What the story also fails to mention is that the code that was supposedly used was actually developed y the USA AKA Stuxnet.

It was released onto the whole world by the Israelis.

Altho this cannot be proven as the USA has never admitted that they used the code to attack Iran, the Israelis never admitted that they used it wo the USA's permission ro hat the Russians then got it from the Israeli release.

So if you believe all this and at this point there is no proof either way, it's all the fault of Obama and his people.

Watch the docu Zero Day and it will fill you in a lot more on what was done by Stuxnet.
Just because a hacker may have obtained access to an employee's laptop, it doesn't mean the hacker has a path to the "main server" ... whatever "main server" means. To my knowledge, the malware package was pretty common "Neutrino" - not some bespoke Russian hacking package.

Where did you read the code used on the Vermont hack was indeed Stuxnet code?
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by SnoBrdr »

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
SnoBrdr wrote:
Bubba wrote:Post Walks Back Burlington Electric Hacking Story
Posted By Paul Heintz on Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 9:15 AM

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/a ... king-story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That was always the question that was not answered in the original story.

Altho I can't believe that the infected laptop was not connected to the main server.

What the story also fails to mention is that the code that was supposedly used was actually developed y the USA AKA Stuxnet.

It was released onto the whole world by the Israelis.

Altho this cannot be proven as the USA has never admitted that they used the code to attack Iran, the Israelis never admitted that they used it wo the USA's permission ro hat the Russians then got it from the Israeli release.

So if you believe all this and at this point there is no proof either way, it's all the fault of Obama and his people.

Watch the docu Zero Day and it will fill you in a lot more on what was done by Stuxnet.
Just because a hacker may have obtained access to an employee's laptop, it doesn't mean the hacker has a path to the "main server" ... whatever "main server" means. To my knowledge, the malware package was pretty common "Neutrino" - not some bespoke Russian hacking package.

Where did you read the code used on the Vermont hack was indeed Stuxnet code?
One of the talking heads on CNN made this claim.

Have you ever heard of a company laptop that wasn't connected to the main server either directly or as part of a chain.
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XtremeJibber2001
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by XtremeJibber2001 »

SnoBrdr wrote:One of the talking heads on CNN made this claim.

Have you ever heard of a company laptop that wasn't connected to the main server either directly or as part of a chain.
Therein lies the problem, CNN.

Depends how you define the "main server". Here's some reading if you're interested.

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comm ... city_grid/
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by SnoBrdr »

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
SnoBrdr wrote:One of the talking heads on CNN made this claim.

Have you ever heard of a company laptop that wasn't connected to the main server either directly or as part of a chain.
Therein lies the problem, CNN.

Depends how you define the "main server". Here's some reading if you're interested.

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comm ... city_grid/
If you know how a worm or a rootkit works, all you have to do is get it on the network and eventually it will work it's way thru every node.

Do you think the government would ever admit that it had done so ?

Nop and you really can't blame them cause of the panic it would cause.
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XtremeJibber2001
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by XtremeJibber2001 »

SnoBrdr wrote:
XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
SnoBrdr wrote:One of the talking heads on CNN made this claim.

Have you ever heard of a company laptop that wasn't connected to the main server either directly or as part of a chain.
Therein lies the problem, CNN.

Depends how you define the "main server". Here's some reading if you're interested.

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comm ... city_grid/
If you know how a worm or a rootkit works, all you have to do is get it on the network and eventually it will work it's way thru every node.

Do you think the government would ever admit that it had done so ?

Nop and you really can't blame them cause of the panic it would cause.
I don't disagree the US facilitated the Stuxnet attack. I disagree some run of the mill malware on an employee's laptop in Vermont could impact/take down the grid.

Sure, if the malware on the employee's laptop was a worm/rootkit and this employee worked in a position that gave him (or servers he was connected to) access to the grid, then sure it could happen. Just like a human, worm's still need the means to propagate from network to network. Certainly the malware being reported right now would not be capable of such a task - not too mention I highly doubt there is a "main server" controlling the grid. The worm would likely require the means to get to into several networks to have a significant impact on a large part of the grid. However, I'm sure there are other ways to cause disruption, just like the recent DOS attack on a DNS server. They didn't bring down the internet, they just disabled the addressing system that provides end-users the means to access twitter, facebook, et al.
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by SnoBrdr »

XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
SnoBrdr wrote:
XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
SnoBrdr wrote:One of the talking heads on CNN made this claim.

Have you ever heard of a company laptop that wasn't connected to the main server either directly or as part of a chain.
Therein lies the problem, CNN.

Depends how you define the "main server". Here's some reading if you're interested.

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comm ... city_grid/
If you know how a worm or a rootkit works, all you have to do is get it on the network and eventually it will work it's way thru every node.

Do you think the government would ever admit that it had done so ?

Nop and you really can't blame them cause of the panic it would cause.
I don't disagree the US facilitated the Stuxnet attack. I disagree some run of the mill malware on an employee's laptop in Vermont could impact/take down the grid.

Sure, if the malware on the employee's laptop was a worm/rootkit and this employee worked in a position that gave him (or servers he was connected to) access to the grid, then sure it could happen. Just like a human, worm's still need the means to propagate from network to network. Certainly the malware being reported right now would not be capable of such a task - not too mention I highly doubt there is a "main server" controlling the grid. The worm would likely require the means to get to into several networks to have a significant impact on a large part of the grid. However, I'm sure there are other ways to cause disruption, just like the recent DOS attack on a DNS server. They didn't bring down the internet, they just disabled the addressing system that provides end-users the means to access twitter, facebook, et al.
Don't know why you are totally believing what the government is saying about the attack.

One thing we have learned over many years is that the dis-information program put out by the US government is 2nd only to Joseph Goebbels.
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XtremeJibber2001
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by XtremeJibber2001 »

SnoBrdr wrote:Don't know why you are totally believing what the government is saying about the attack.

One thing we have learned over many years is that the dis-information program put out by the US government is 2nd only to Joseph Goebbels.
Where did I say I believe what the government is saying? Are you asserting the gov't is purposely lying about the attack, forced the post to walk back it's original article, and it was indeed a Stuxnet style attack?
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Re: Russians supposedly hack Vt. Electric utility

Post by Guy in Shorts »

Being too busy protecting the Vermont power grid from Russian hackers to ski or respond the last few days. The laptop in question was hooked up to the corporate network at Burlington Electric which like every company in the country is connected to the internet. The job of any IT dept is to monitor and clean off malware that finds its way in. The computer system used to control the power grid in the City of Burlington was not impacted. These systems we run are never connected to the internet and are run as a secure stand alone system. I can’t operate their breakers and the operator there can’t operate mine. My bunker like building is designed to protect me from any possible threat physical or electronic threat. Like working behind 6 foot thick concrete walls, bullet proof glass and bomb blast doors. Each of the control rooms just like mine have their own secure protected system. Every difficult to hack into one system but then you would need to hack into control rooms in other states to gain control of the power grid. Large blast electronic pulse or a nuclear bomb are the big game changers that are hard to defend against but that job falls to the military and The Donald. There was not a real story here only the Washington Post running with a story without fact checking.
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