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Academic Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S. (Cyber Attack on Electric Grid)
NYT ^ | John Markoff & David Barboza

Posted on 03/22/2010 4:11:04 AM PDT by edpc

It came as a surprise this month to Wang Jianwei, a graduate engineering student in Liaoning, China, that he had been described as a potential cyberwarrior before the United States Congress.

Larry M. Wortzel, a military strategist and China specialist, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10 that it should be concerned because “Chinese researchers at the Institute of Systems Engineering of Dalian University of Technology published a paper on how to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; cyberattack; cyberwarfare; economy; energy; infrastructure
When reached by telephone, Mr. Wang said he and his professor had indeed published “Cascade-Based Attack Vulnerability on the U.S. Power Grid” in an international journal called Safety Science last spring. But Mr. Wang said he had simply been trying to find ways to enhance the stability of power grids by exploring potential vulnerabilities.

So, a menacing work was only done for our own good? Been hearing stuff like that a lot, lately.

1 posted on 03/22/2010 4:11:05 AM PDT by edpc
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To: edpc

We should write a paper on how China would suffer more from a thermonuclear war than the US and how it would benefit the US in the long run.

Purely academic, of course.
I’m sure they wouldn’t mind...


2 posted on 03/22/2010 4:15:48 AM PDT by Bon mots
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To: edpc

Okay, anyone want to take bets on the Nobel Prize for this paper?


3 posted on 03/22/2010 4:18:33 AM PDT by raybbr
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To: edpc

Wang Jianwei just did us a colossal favor. With his paper and the fact that he is Chinese, our government would have just procrastinated fixing the power grid problem. Now that it has been brought to our attention the Feds can fix it like the Post Office, Social security and now Health Care.


4 posted on 03/22/2010 4:20:45 AM PDT by BuffaloJack ("When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: edpc
I suppose the equipment we would need to protect against such an attack is made in China. It sounds more like an academic version of the old protection racket come on, "Nice place you have here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it."
5 posted on 03/22/2010 4:25:35 AM PDT by jmcenanly
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To: edpc
Hey! I wrote a paper in the late 60's about the press distorting protest reports and causing riots in other cities. Where is my 15 minutes?
6 posted on 03/22/2010 4:36:28 AM PDT by bobzeetwin
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To: edpc

What is the big deal about this guy’s paper? If it is true, then he has done us a big favor bringing this to light, imo.


7 posted on 03/22/2010 4:58:49 AM PDT by rawhide
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To: rawhide

The last part of post 5 pretty much summarizes it. It’s an open threat wrapped in a harmless looking package. Look at how the Chinese government acts on the world stage and revisit whether you believe they have our best interests in mind.


8 posted on 03/22/2010 5:17:52 AM PDT by edpc (Those Lefties just ain't right)
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To: edpc

This unclass version is just a smokescreen and a cover for the genuine classified plans.


9 posted on 03/22/2010 5:27:45 AM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
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To: Travis McGee

Then let’s bury our minds deeper into the true plans. It has to be an order of magnitude larger in scale and scope than the one written up by Wang Jianwei.

Think of the cyberattacks portrayed in Bruce Willis’s 2007 movie Die Hard 4.0.


10 posted on 03/22/2010 5:38:57 AM PDT by myknowledge (F-22 Raptor: World's Largest Distributor of Sukhoi parts!)
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To: myknowledge

Yes indeed.


11 posted on 03/22/2010 5:41:00 AM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
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To: bobzeetwin

It just happened.

How was it?

;)


12 posted on 03/22/2010 5:50:52 AM PDT by homegroan (*Vote Kitteh & Squirrel 2012*!....ILLIGITIMA NON CARBORUNDUM..... -that's 4U Dad!))
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To: edpc

chicom bump for later.......


13 posted on 03/22/2010 5:53:02 AM PDT by indthkr
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To: edpc

My uncle was basically replaced as an engineer at ATT by chinese graducated “engineers.” But we should assume that none of them would ever ever be up to no good.


14 posted on 03/22/2010 7:38:26 AM PDT by junta (S.C.U.M. = State Controlled Unreliable Media)
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To: BuffaloJack

It's too bad that good diesel gen-sets cost so dang much.

15 posted on 03/22/2010 10:21:45 AM PDT by BlueDragon (there is no such thing as a "true" compass, all are subject to both variation & deviation)
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To: homegroan
It just happened. How was it? ;)

I missed it. I had to get to work. :(

16 posted on 03/22/2010 8:06:57 PM PDT by bobzeetwin
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