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Friday, November 7, 2014

'Trojan Horse' Bug Lurking in Vital US Computers Since 2011

 
A destructive “Trojan Horse” malware program has penetrated the software that runs much of the nation’s critical infrastructure and is poised to cause an economic catastrophe, according to the Department of Homeland Security

National Security sources told ABC News there is evidence that the malware was inserted by hackers believed to be sponsored by the Russian government, and is a very serious threat. 

The hacked software is used to control complex industrial operations like oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines and even some nuclear plants. Shutting down or damaging any of these vital public utilities could severely impact hundreds of thousands of Americans. 

Story here
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I happen to know a smidgen about the Oil and Gas Industry and certain applications involved with it. If you don't know about the pipelines that are spread all over this country along with all of the plants and refineries, I suggest you brush up a little. One little hiccup in a closed, pressurized system, can cause an entire pipeline to "burp". I think we all know what that means. 

Catastrophic failure in some of these refineries would not be good at all. In fact, the Gulf Coast would be a terrible place to try and exist after an extinction level event chemical release. A 3 mile cloud radius of some of these chemicals would do some serious damage and kill many people. Ever heard of Hydrogen Sulfide, Ethylene Oxide, Benzene, Hydrogen Cyanide, Amine, Hydrofluoric Acid? Yeah, that's not the kind of shit I want to be exposed to either in an environmental release. Even with safety systems in place to seal off most of the bad shit in the event of a failure, there are still many other things that could go wrong. 
 

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