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by permutations June 21, 2010 9:15 PM EDT
Why in the world did you give INSTRUCTIONS to hackers on how to blow up our electrical grid? This was absolutely the stupidest piece of irresponsible journalism I have ever seen in my life. Are you insane????
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by kcaamem1 November 20, 2009 6:17 PM EST
Just to be clear the comment:

"look how movies have influenced military and swat teams."

was made by Milo55, not Realisticone.
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by Marcos989 November 13, 2009 5:07 PM EST
As everybody now should know, 3 hours after this story aired electrical power went out for 5 hours in Brazil in 10 States (including Rio & Sao Paulo the worlds 2nd largest metropolis)and parts of Paraguay. When Brazilian officials were asked if there was any connection they discounted the possibility, when pressed for the reason the power was interrupted 3 days ago, they reported they did not know. If you do not know how can you discount the possibility? You can if you expect the majority of your population to not learn about the cyber attacks and do not want to alert them.
I live in Rio de Janeiro State, I was one of those affected by this power loss and the cyber attack in 07 & likely 05 and have never heard any of this information from the media here in Brazil. Thank-you 60 Minutes.
I for one take the cyber attacks seriously and cannot agree more with our US President that they are a looming threat that is as serious as any other terrorist attack. My livelihood depends on the free flow of information. I will be withdrawing $$ from my bank to physically hold in case of emergency. I will not rely on governments to protect me from all of you if our systems go down.
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by kgcoleman1 November 11, 2009 6:57 PM EST
This year I ref­er­enced in sev­eral brief­ings and dur­ing my lec­ture at Harvard a study by the European Parliament ? Directorate General for External Policies that was titled ?Cyber Security and Politically, Socially and Religiously Motivated Cyber Attacks.? On page 14 of that study in the third para­graph it states the following.

?In 2001, fol­low­ing a dis­pute over dam­age to US and Chinese air­craft in the South China Sea, both coun­tries suf­fered a series of cyber attacks, and at one stage California?s elec­tric­ity grid was almost shut down.?

I won­der if Congressman Langevin knows about that!

Full Report
http://www.isis-europe.org/pdf/2009_artrel_247_09-02-epstudy-cyberterrorism.pdf
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by milo55 November 11, 2009 10:40 AM EST
throw this story in the trash... where it belongs..wild imaginations are at play here.. come back to earth... there is no computer bogey man...
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by Overruled1 November 11, 2009 12:52 AM EST
Damn, another cover up issue with the Bush Administration.... Why exactly he wasn't impeached is as disgraceful as the treachery of that administration. We were attacked during a time of war, something people didn't stress enough.....And Brazil was terrorized.....
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by bubbadubba November 10, 2009 10:04 PM EST
I like Bush's plans better - never prepare for anything just look like a bug eyed clown when it happens.
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by DanielCBotelho November 10, 2009 7:55 PM EST
Message to CBS journalists:

There has been a huge blackout in Brazil for the past 20-25 minutes or so. Has affected over 5 states, leaving millions with no power.

Just spoke to friends and family, and no one know what happened. I'm not able to get in touch with some of them.

Could this be another attack!? Reminded me of the 60minutes report as soon as I heard this news from a family member.
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by valerieinto November 10, 2009 7:46 PM EST
I wish you could have taken a little bit of all that time you took scaring people a dozen different ways, and put it toward discussing some really great work being done by at least one independent agency in Canada to catch global cyber-criminals (and how government agencies are kind of putting them off). At least Jesse Brown did on the Search Engine podcast on the public broadcaster TV Ontario. (2nd half of the show) : http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/searchengine/index.cfm?page_id=613&action=blog&subaction=viewPost&post_id=11365&blog_id=485
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by 60Mviewer November 10, 2009 6:57 PM EST
I was puzzled as I watched the large electrical generator self-destruct "via Internet."

In order for that to happen, that equipment had to be designed in such a way that the cooling system could be turned off while the engine continued to run. This seems like poor equipment design more than an issue of Internet security.

Any hairdryer with a U.L. label cannot burn itself up due to a simple but effective safety device. Such safety devices need not be connected to the "brains" of the machinery, due to the risk of disablement.

(Yes, I know that generators and hairdryers are not comparable, but the principle remains.)

It's much easier to believe that generator was altered and we were watching theater. Still, I can't entirely abandon the possibility that the designer so over-computerized that equipment that it's less safe than a hairdryer.

That being the limit of speculation, I wish I had more information. It's the most obvious unanswered question in the entire report.
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