121–130 of 259 posts
I think it's interesting Russia isn't doing more things like this in protest of Ukraine support, whether this was them or not. Realistically, two teams of 5 guys with good opsec training could probably take out any infrastructure they wanted, and do it repeatedly
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They knew enough to shoot a part that is filled with fluid and hard to replace. They might have lacked the knowledge of "the grid" to make such an attack go beyond one county, but there was some degree of thought put into that attack. It's easier to attack than defend.
> It's easier to attack than defend Interestingly, I'd wager that very little infrastructure in developed countries was designed with any thought of defending it from it's own citizens.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it probably doesn't take an electrical engineer to figure out that destroying the radiators would put the substation out of action at least temporarily, but it does show they put a bit of thought into it at least. It doesn't seem like a case of a dumbass using the substation for target practice on a whim, it all seems very deliberate and purposeful.
It's not the radiators, it's the transformator itself. Shorted winding == complete replacement needed for high voltages, and a single bullet would be more than enought to break insulation on the winding many times.
It's quite interesting that they also attacked a substation that looked important on a map, but wasn't actually vital. I think some of the early reporting about this incident suggested they "knew what they were doing", but the apparent misidentification of one of their targets perhaps suggests the perpetrators were making educated guesses, without detailed/insider knowledge of how the system worked.
I bet they used the wrong maps. Like a topo or regular driving map. If they'd gone that one step further and gotten the utility GIS layers Tthings could have gotten a lot more out of hand.
I think it's interesting Russia isn't doing more things like this in protest of Ukraine support, whether this was them or not. Realistically, two teams of 5 guys with good opsec training could probably take out any infrastructure they wanted, and do it repeatedly
Let's say that someone (perhaps DoE) identified that the power grid was at risk of attack. Convincing a bunch of people (politicians) to spend a chunk of change to secure it would be betweeen difficult and impossible. In order to further their cause, they can stage these trivial looking attacks to attract funding to grid security.
In computers, hiring pen testers is a common way to get security funded. An attack is a sure fire way to get something funded.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's easier to attack than defend Interestingly, I'd wager that very little infrastructure in developed countries was designed with any thought of defending it from it's own citizens.
Things are breaking down everyday, and there is a large army of ants scurrying about keeping the lights on with shoe strings and bubble gum. Russia has been bombing Ukraine infra from Oct, used thousands of missiles and things are still running - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%932023_Russian_st... .
running from the radiation released from the shelling of nuke plants, not running in the "performing normally" sense
"Radiation levels increased about 20-fold on Thursday"
https://web.archive.org/web/20220225165134/https://www.bbc.c...
This is a thought experiment. Let's say that someone (perhaps DoE) identified that the power grid was at risk of attack. Convincing a bunch of people (politicians) to spend a chunk of change to secure it would be betweeen difficult and impossible. In order to further their cause, they can stage these trivial looking attacks to attract funding to grid security. In computers, hiring pen testers is a common way to get s…
That's like shooting up a school to get more security around schools. Come on.
This is a thought experiment. Let's say that someone (perhaps DoE) identified that the power grid was at risk of attack. Convincing a bunch of people (politicians) to spend a chunk of change to secure it would be betweeen difficult and impossible. In order to further their cause, they can stage these trivial looking attacks to attract funding to grid security. In computers, hiring pen testers is a common way to get s…
I'm not convinced of this. They play a lot of games, but ensuring that power is reliable and fairly price-stable is not just important to all of the peasant middle class voters, but also to their big corporate donors, the farming blocks, etc.