Federal Web sites hit hard by cyber attacks
• APA widespread and unusually resilient computer
attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several
government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting
cyber crime, The Associated Press has learned.The
Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and
Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points
over the holiday weekend and into this
Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070800066.html?hpid=topnews
We know the Chinese and FSU have been building this capability for years. Of more concern to me are the internationalized hacker/criminals who have built zombienets and skynets and who seem to be building amazing tools that build secret networks among machines. The idea that we might get hit with a simultaneous attack by all three of these factors would have a pretty serious impact. Possibly a catastrophic one.
Maybe Twitter would stay up and we can manage defense and critical infrastructure that way?