Hack Attack! CIA Confirms Blacked Out Cities caused by Cyberattacks

Have you seen Bruce Willis' Die Hard 4.0? Well the plot of the movie is John McClane taking on an Internet-based terrorist organization who is systematically shutting down the United States. If you think that only happens in Hollywood films then think again. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has just confirmed that recent black outs from select cities were caused by hackers.

Criminals have launched online attacks via the Internet that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., CIA analyst Tom Donahue said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.

Hacking the power grid made front-page headlines in September when CNN aired a video showing an Idaho National Laboratory demonstration of a software attack on the computer system used to control a power generator. In the demonstration, the smoking generator was rendered inoperable.

The U.S. is taking steps to lock down the computers that manage its power systems, however.

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technorati tags: hackers, black out, cyberattack