via NASAHacking into and shutting down industrial systems on which the U.S.
relies is staggeringly easy, according to recent presentations from the Black Hat hacker conference.
Picture this: A few pump station operators along New York City's water tunnels fire up their computers to check the status of various water pressure readings.
But their networks have been hacked, and the readings they see on their computers are not the real readings. The adjustments they make cause the water pressure to skyrocket, blowing several mains, and cutting water to various part of the city, if not the entire city.
Sure these systems have redundancies, but those redundancies are vulnerable too.
Flickr via altemarkAttacks require "significantly fewer resources and skill" than previously thought.Simultaneously, in other parts of the Northeast U.S., hacked high voltage transformers spin out of control and explode. The blackout could cut as wide as the Tri-State area, and last for months, compounding any attempts to fix the water lines.
No water. No electricity. Pure mayhem.
Tim Simonite of MIT Tech Review recently talked to hackers at Black Hat about a vulnerability in a protocol called