IP: who needs info warfare -- a bit more

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 18:56:45 -0700
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
From: Suzanne Johnson <fuhn@ricochet.net>
Subject: Re: IP: who needs info warfare


Interestingly, the story of the power outage has received relatively little
press here in Silicon Valley.=A0 Had there been ANY computer involvement,=
 I'm
sure the world would have heard much more of the evils of computers and the
Internet.=A0 As it is, evidently someone let them self into the power
substation and within the space of a few minutes,=A0 turned 39 switches into
a position that would cut power off to a wide area.=A0 Investigators are
finding that literally hundreds of people have keys to the sub-station so
the investigation is going somewhat slowly.=A0 The outage happened at about
6am on a weekday morning.. transportation (BART) and power were affected.
Although about six months ago someone shot up another PGE sub-station,
security still consisted primarily of surveillance cameras.=A0 Now however,
PGE is beginning to patrol and/or guard some of the stations.


During the last part of this same week, a local paging company went
bankrupt and quit business... leaving about 250,000 people in California
off the air.


It's not always technology that is the villain.




At 07:02 PM 10/25/97 -0400, you wrote:
>While I appreciate the potential dangers of IW, the vulnerability of our
>existing physical infrastructure has been and should be equally worry some.
>Drive down 101 south of San Jose and look at the power interconnect within
>a few feet of the freeway and think what a good pitching arm could do. Look
>at the LA Aqueduct or the TWO water feeders that supply Manhattan.=20
>
>What me worry.
>
>Dave
>
>
>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Utility officials increased security at power stations
>around San Francisco on Friday after FBI investigators said someone
>intentionally cut power to the city's downtown.=20
>"It was a deliberate act," said FBI spokesman George Grotz. "It was not an
>accident, and it was not a computer intrusion."=20
>|
>
>
>
>**************************************************
>"Photons have neither morals nor visas"=A0 --=A0 Dave Farber 1994
>**************************************************
>
>=20






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"Photons have neither morals nor visas"  --  Dave Farber 1994
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