Anchises de Paula
Type of lecture: lecture
Language: EN
Held on 2010-07-10 16:00:00 (length: 50 min)
Location: WerkzeugH
'We know that cyber intruders have probed SCADA systems, and that in other countries cyber attacks have started volcano eruptions. Several prominent intelligence sources confirmed that a cyber attack in Iceland in April 2010 affected several European countries and hundreds of thousands of people. The Icelandic Meteorological Office had several plants knocked offline, which indicates that the cyber incident is connected to the explosive activity from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. It is not clear who did it or what the motive was.'
Calm down, the story above is not true, as far as I know. Actually, I just created it by copying and pasting text from a major US news program's story on cyber war and system sabotage. There is a lot of FUD, paranoia and an obscure political agenda behind the recent news about hackers' capabilities to attack SCADA Systems and disrupt critical infrastructures. Are hackers able to blackout a country, to destroy an oil platform, to disrupt Wall Street, or to lead a volcano to eruption?
We have seen plenty of rumors about cyber attacks against the nation's critical infrastructures, including security vulnerabilities in the power grid control systems (the ones that run dams, power plants, transmission lines and more). Some security professionals are highly skeptical about the claims, raising questions about the veracity of the penetration of industrial systems by criminals, while several sources from the government and the industry keep mentioning this story, over and over.
In this presentation, Anchises will discuss the misinformation, disinformation and myths that support such cyber Armageddon theories and stories. He will elaborate on the technical feasibility of such threats, the political agenda and the press agencies' trustworthiness. In addition, he will present a review of the press stories about SCADA attacks and discuss the real feasibility of them. Are these stories real, lies, or exaggeration? What is the likelihood of each of them? The truth is out there and we will find it.
Anchises M. G. de Paula is working as Threat Intelligence Analyst at iDefense, VeriSign.