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Hacking in to high visibility control systems is growing
exponentially. Although General Alexander (Head of NSA and US
Cyber Command) mentioned water, power, and communications, the
threat extends to all key infrastructure - to include the US
National Labs. Control systems are an easy target for both the
amateur looking for cyber cred, the entrepreneur looking to sell
vulnerability info, and government sponsored entities looking to
probe and exploit weaknesses.<br>
<br>
Kelly Mahoney<br>
<br>
<i>As posted on Government Computing News (GCN)<br>
<br>
"DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT<br>
Published: July 26, 2012 in the NY Times<br>
<br>
ASPEN, Colo. — The top American military official responsible for
defending the United States against cyberattacks said Thursday
that there had been a 17-fold increase in computer attacks on
American infrastructure between 2009 and 2011, initiated by
criminal gangs, hackers and other nations....America’s electricity
grids, water supplies, computer and cellphone networks and other
infrastructure are coming under attack. Those attacks are
considered potentially far more serious than computer espionage or
financial crimes."<br>
<br>
<br>
"By John Breeden II<br>
Jul 27, 2012<br>
Recently we have seen phishing scams that begin in the private
sector make the jump to specifically target federal employees. In
one case, attackers targeting Gmail accounts gained access to the
accounts of U.S. government officials. <br>
<br>
Phishing, in fact, is by far the most common means of attack in
federal networks, so every fed should be aware of the latest
trends in these areas in case the attacks are aimed again at the
government.<br>
<br>
To an attentive user, many phishing e-mails can be easy to spot —
poor grammar, typos, dodgy e-mail addresses and absurd scenarios
being some of the tip-offs — but some of them still get through
anyway."<br>
</i><br>
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