From: Julian Assange <profft_private> Originally To: lacct_private While browsing through the Australian Parliament House library, I came across this report: Thinking about the Unthinkable: Australian Vulnerabilities to High-Tech Risks Dr Adam Cobb Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Group 29 June 1998 [http://www.aph.gov.au/dpl/pubs/rp/1997-98/98rp18.htm] Which appears to be your typical info-worrier paranoia inducing budget purloiner. What struck me however, was the disingenuous `cover grab' used on page one: Hackers Attack NZ & Aust for Joining Gulf Taskforce AZP London: A hacker group calling themselves the 'Anti-Christ Doom Squad' was involved in attacks against New Zealand and Australia just days after Wellington and Canberra announced troop deployments to the latest Gulf Crisis. In a secret UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) report leaked today, the Auckland blackouts that crippled the city for weeks earlier in the year, were traced to electronic attacks on New Zealand's electricity distribution network, launched by computers in Amsterdam over the Internet. A senior government source in the Australian equivalent to GCHQ, the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), confirmed that the widespread blackouts across the Australian state of Queensland were also traced to the same source. The 'Anti-Christ' hackers traversed computer systems worldwide using 'spoofed' user-names and stolen passwords to try to conceal their identity. Once inside the New Zealand power companies' supercomputer, the hackers accessed a control system commonly used in energy distributions systems to launch their attack. The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system controls switches and flows across most modern power distribution networks. The 'Anti Christ Doom Squad' then concentrated on manipulating one key choke-point on the outskirts of Auckland. It was the location where all five main powerlines converged before entering the city. The 'Doom Squad' altered the temperature within the gas-encased power lines thereby crippling them within minutes. The whole operation was launched and conducted from a drug café in Amsterdam using a lap-top and a modem. Simultaneous widespread blackouts across the Australian state of Queensland disrupted businesses, schools and emergency services. However, the DSD refused to comment on whether any other critical Australian infrastructures were affected. Because the attacks passed through computers in over 10 countries and legal jurisdictions, it will be almost impossible to bring the hackers to justice, the GCHQ report notes. The government of Iraq denies any connection with the blackouts. Which is of course complete fiction. Telling the reader that the splash page (and a big splash at that) is an outright lie, doesn't sit easily with Dr. Cobb. In fact in following 100 or so pages that comprise the body of the FADaT report, the only reference we see to it is this: In early 1998, both Queensland and Auckland, New Zealand, were afflicted with severe blackouts as key choke-points (or nodes) in the electricity distribution networks collapsed(2). As the Auckland crisis proved, contemporary cities quickly grind to a halt when electricity, telecommunications and financial networks are out of action. Which if anything is re-enforcing the lie the report started with. Observant readers will be asking about that little (2) in `.. networks collapsed(2).'? Is it a footnote? No, however, some 100 pages later we find this endnote: 2.The exact cause of each failure has not been made public as of 04/06/1998. However, as the fictitious news story was attempting to suggest, aggressive attacks are now just as plausible as technical failure. Which, taking aside the fact the statements about causes are completely untrue, has got to be the worlds most half-hearted apology for scientific fraud I've ever seen. -- Prof. Julian Assange |"From each according to his abilities | to each according to her needs." profft_private | profft_private | -Mrs. Karl Marx -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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