It seems well past time that any infrastructure system that requires
communications between its various segments should never be connected to the iternet.

The latest one, the pipeline in the US is a prime example.
As a result the whole East Coast US might run out of petrol and diesel.
In this case they had a pipeline running through the country so could
have run a fibre optic or co-ax cable throughout their system.

Back in the early 1990s a friend was managing the statewide control
communications for the Electricity Commission using microwave systems.
I asked why don't you use the internet ?
No way, he said, it is too open to intruders getting access.
The word hackers had not been heard at that time.
He is now retired, but I wonder if his wonder boy successors took
any notice of their predecessors ?

>The latest one, the pipeline in the US is a prime example.
>As a result the whole East Coast US might run out of petrol and diesel.

As a result of what?
Please write more coherently!

Ahh, yes Aiden, I presumed most would have heard of the attack on the US pipeline by hackers.
They compromised the system with an encrypt and blackmail hack.
The software to do that is freely available I am told.

Hi Bazz,

It was on the news this morning. They suspect the
hackers are linked to Russia - and US President
Biden has contacted Mr Putin about the matter.

cont'd ...

It is rather scary that a cyber criminal gang can
take a major US fuel pipeline offline over the
week-end. Colonial Pipeline's networks are the
major East Coast's supply of diesel, petrol, and
jet fuel. The Pipeline carries 2.5 million barrels
a day of the East Coast's supply.

The FBI is investigating the matter and questions
do arise as to how the cyber attacks managed to shut
off a US Pipeline?

Foxy that had me laughing out loud, not at you but the substance, "US President Biden has contacted Mr Putin about the matter". That's about the best joke so far this year. If any greater proof is needed to show that Biden is a doddering fool, I can't imagine what it could be.

Putin is king of Russian oil if Russia is involved it will be on his orders, his post Easter joke perhaps. I suppose Biden could beg & grovel.

Oh the poor USA

When Aidan Sanger is not spreading muck on Twitter and other sites, including this one, he is is being nasty.

A later update quoted the hackers;
"we are doing this for the money, it is not political."
Another reference, on I think the BBC, stated that the message was in Russian.
Probably trying to reduce the heat.
Along the same line, the Stux virus that destroyed Iran's centrifuges
which were NOT connected to the internet, was introduced by leaving
memory sticks lying around the town and sooner or later someone that
was employed at the nuclear site found one and plugged it into a usb
socket to see what was on it. And away it went !
So, on a critical site do not have USB ports on computers on the site.
I have been told that is now a common practice.

Hasbeen, re your crack about Biden. If the USA has evidence that Russian hackers were involved, Biden had a range of option:

1. Do nothing.
2. Contact Putin. This could be a message f displeasure, or a warning of counteraction if hackings continue.
3. Retaliate. Trade sanctions? Hack Russian assets? Bomb something?

If Biden did nothing, your criticism migbt be valid. Of the other two options, instant retaliation would be foolish,since it invites a tit-for-tat escalation.

Option 2 makes most sense at this stage. While we don't know what Biden said to Putin, I doubt it followed Trump's line of adoration (envy?) of strong-man Putin.

US President has done the right thing in contacting Putin.
Biden is being kept up to date by all the federal agencies.
He knows what's going on and has acted appropriately.
We'll see what the outcomes are. Biden is not Trump -
and Putin will be dealt with in a different way.

Here is a link which discusses what difficulties are starting to
development in this Ransom hack.

http://tinyurl.com/95wxnvee

Hopefully it will alert some people who should know better to the risk
of having important functions connected to the internet.

I notice that one female member of the Biden administration thinks that, if they all had electric cars, they wouldn't have to worry about the situation. I never use the expression gob smacking, but I can't think of a more appropriate response to that.

Dear Bazz,

What is disturbing is the fact that hackers are
able to access and interfere with data that should
be kept private. I would have thought that certain
sites would have safeguards and be inaccessible.
Obviously that's not the case to professional
hackers - and in this case to criminals. Which means
can computers be trusted with vital information?
And how can this problem be solved?

Foxy;
It is to some extent the design of the operating system plus
the user taking advantage of the security facilities that are made
available by its designer and any addon like virus detectors.

It is because of the facilities available that we now see so many of
these emails trying to trick you into clicking on this or that.
For the large industrial systems like the pipeline if they need a
lot of access points by a lot of people then there are lots
of attack points.
So if not connected to the internet and no USB ports and a tight
access needing root access to do anything outside the main program
then you are probably safe. However it is peopleware that is always a risk.

Dear Bazz,

Thank You for taking the time to explain the
situation to me. I doubt if my computer has
anything on it that anyone would want so I
think I'm safe. I did get scammed once - but
it was my own fault. I got a phone call from
someone telling me they were from Telstra.
Like an idiot, I followed their instructions.
And ended up with a virus on the computer -
and it cost me quite a bit to have it removed
by professionals.

Foxy,
That one that caught you has changed its approach now to
"We are about to disconnect your internet because the NBN is
now available. To speak to a technician press one."

Up to this point it is just a computer talking to you.
When you press one you get a person with an Australian accent usually.
They then presume you are using windows and ask you to press certain
keys which give them access to your computer. They can then load a
keystroke monitor so that they can see you usernames and passwords, account numbers etc.
When I am in the mood I lead them on and tell them the key presses
they ask have done nothing. That confuses them and they will call
the "Supervisor".
After a while I tell them I am tired of wasting my time wasting theirs.
I tell them to go an get a real job and stop stealing.
That usually results in bad language.

What annoys me more are these calls saying that you investment
application has been approved and has accumulated $1326 so please sign
in and transfer this amount to your account.
Or they are just selling a Bit Coin account.

It has got to the extent that I just switch off my mobile each afternoon.

Cheers

Latest info.
The Pipeline company is reported to have paid US$5Million.
The only problem was that the unpack key the hackers sent did not work
and they had to revert to their own backups etc.