Putin shut down a power grid last month. This is why we need NSA and CISA.

Photo by dflorian1980 on flickr

Imagine going without power for 6 hours in the dead of winter, 2 days before Christmas, because some foreign power wanted to poke at your country.

That’s what Putin’s minions did to 8,000 folks in Ukraine on December 23 last month, and if you think American energy firms, living fat and happy on local monopolies, are better equipped to fight these attacks… hahahahaha.

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Photo by dflorian1980 on flickr
Photo by dflorian1980 on flickr

Says the Daily Signal:

While an analysis of the cyberattack is ongoing, [the Russian attack group] BlackEnergy has a history of targeting information control systems.

For the Prikarpattiaoblenergo electric company in Ukraine, the malware and its subcomponent KillDisk shut down computer operating systems, which in turn ended up shutting down the local electrical grid. Hackers also sought to make it impossible for customers to report electrical issues to the electric company by blocking out the company’s phone system.

This is a known entity attacking from Russia, with known methods of operation. This is valuable information that needs to be shared. But the Ukrainian power firm didn’t know, and so got hit. That’s the way it is with online attacks: The good guys outnumber the bad, but the good guys don’t gather and share information as well as the bad guys do.

That’s why we need NSA. We need a dedicated group out there, making it its job to get in the business of those bad guys. We also need CISA: a new law that Democrats keep fighting, that would enable public-private data sharing about cybersecurity threats and attacks.

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I don’t want to be sitting in a cold, dark room because DC politicians didn’t realize we’re at war online, and we must arm ourselves with the tools of Internet warfare, because our enemies aren’t going to stop on their own. We have to fight back.

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