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Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

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Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation?

That theory is actively refuted in the article but there was some chatter on twitter about it apparently. (See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33859434 ) Overall I get the impression that promoting conspiracy theories is ok when they involve hypothetical "far right" actors

No post body was provided.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#122
post #92

A grenade (or IED) or two thrown in coordination into a few of those local-area transformer / power distribution stations would cause state-level chaos. Where I live, these seemingly critical infrastructure outposts, are protected by nothing more than high chicken-wire fences. Cyber Squirrel is the best and longest-lived exemplification of the sensitivity and scale of this vulnerability: https://cybersquirrel1.com/ T…

Apparently "Lead time on replacement parts" is the biggest issue today with dealing with the issue in a prompt time frame. Maybe they should stock up on at least 1x set of repair parts that would take a long timeframe to replace? Ukraine has shown how important electric substation part supply chains are.

Exactly. Critical infrastructure needs a strategic reserve.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#124
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "He felt that the views of those who opposed the government's actions weren't being heard, that the mainstream media weren't taking notice, that really it needed something to be done to promote those views," Nabney told the high Court. And so he caused 1.2 million of damage to Electricity infrastructure. Tell me again why I'm the rambling conspiracy theorists for suspecting NZ is the target of disinformation trying…

I would actually argue that disinformation is only thiz level of effective when a society is already sick. Its alot easier to point to whats falling apart to back up your argument, than it is to build a intricate web of shadowy lies. I guess what im saying is I feel like disinfo is a misnomer compared to what i see it as. Demoralization. And honestly when people do become a product of manufactured value by propagandi…

Maybe Demoralization is a good word for this. its not so much about truth as feelings. i dont know if the society is really sick, or just enduring challenging times. Direct action, protest, ararchism, etc have always been a part of the NZ political landscape. But the organisation of these things seems much more tightly integrated to international actors, groups, movements, funders, .. whatever youd call it.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#125
post #81

Curfew seems excessive. We have had a number of 8-12 hour power outages around here and the local governments have never declared curfew. Parts of Ottawa were without power in the spring for 2 weeks after the derecho and there was no curfew.

Consider that the curfew could be caused not by the outages, but by the fact that there could be further attacks, or the suspicion that whoever did this wanted the outage as a first step for a more extensive plan.

It's far more likely to be vandalism, and that happens from time to time with infrastructure all over the place. Jumping to such an extreme overreaction does nothing other than make life miserable for everyone that's innocent. Deploy police to monitor infrastructure for sure, but locking down law abiding citizens seems like overkill.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#126
This may turn out to be a good thing in the long run.

Why? People (and news reports) have been highlighting the lack of security around critical infrastructure like this for years. Now that folks are deciding to attack these targets, hopefully more budget and time goes into actually securing them vs just throwing up some fences around them.

Granted, there could also be the power industries version of "security theater" but I'm going to err on the side of optimism.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. My point was that it's scarily easy. I like that your point is that it's way scarily easiER. Wouldn't Beta be slightly more effective? /s

Yeah. The VHS thought experiment came from a brainstorm with an old timer after 9/11 about how to protect network infrastructure. You simply can’t.

For anyone curious. If you short out transmission lines downstream of large generator, the protection is to vent steam and wind down generation fast. Do this to a few plants and might take a long time to bring things back up.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#128

Quoted post unavailable.

What does this have to do with the article? And why should we listen to someone with "If you hate cancel culture I'll cancel you" in their profile?

The quote is in fact accurate, so I don't see how the profile of the person who quoted it is relevant.

It's probably just a coincidence, but Trump has posted several thing in the last day or so on Truth Social saying things like that and that the US is the most corrupt country on Earth and the Democrats, big tech, law enforcement, and even most Republicans in Congress (basically any that did try to block certification of the 2020 election) all conspired to steal the election from him, and saying that this unprecedented fraud needs an unprecedented cure. Before that he's also said that the courts are in on it, including the Supreme Court.

He's getting a lot of responses form people who are taking that as meaning a violent response is needed. He's not as far as I've seen posting any responses telling them that's not what he meant.

So, like I said, probably just a coincidence but still, it is something to keep an eye on.

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#129

This may turn out to be a good thing in the long run. Why? People (and news reports) have been highlighting the lack of security around critical infrastructure like this for years. Now that folks are deciding to attack these targets, hopefully more budget and time goes into actually securing them vs just throwing up some fences around them. Granted, there could also be the power industries version of "security theate…

Can such a widely distributed system even be protected from a determined actor?

Re: Emergency declared and curfew imposed following North Carolina power grid attack

#130
post #92

A grenade (or IED) or two thrown in coordination into a few of those local-area transformer / power distribution stations would cause state-level chaos. Where I live, these seemingly critical infrastructure outposts, are protected by nothing more than high chicken-wire fences. Cyber Squirrel is the best and longest-lived exemplification of the sensitivity and scale of this vulnerability: https://cybersquirrel1.com/ T…

Apparently "Lead time on replacement parts" is the biggest issue today with dealing with the issue in a prompt time frame. Maybe they should stock up on at least 1x set of repair parts that would take a long timeframe to replace? Ukraine has shown how important electric substation part supply chains are.

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