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U.S. senators: Al Qaeda calls for 'electronic jihad'

CNN ^ | May 23, 2012 | CNN Wire Staff

Posted on by Innovative

An al Qaeda video calling for "electronic jihad" illustrates the urgent need for cybersecurity standards for the most critical networks in the United States, a group of senators said.

The video calls for cyberattacks against networks such as the electric grid and compares vulnerabilities in the United States' critical cyber networks to the vulnerabilities in the country's aviation system before 9/11, according to a statement Tuesday from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

"This is the clearest evidence we've seen that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups want to attack the cyber systems of our critical infrastructure," committee chairman Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said in the statement. "Congress needs to act now to protect the American public from a possible devastating attack on our electric grid, water delivery systems or financial networks, for example."



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

TOPICS:

Front Page News

News/Current Events

War on Terror

KEYWORDS:

alqaeda

alquaeda

cyberattack

cyberattacks

cyberwarfare

electronicjihad

informationsecurity

internet

terrorism

What a surprise! (NOT!) See this article from 2002 warning about the same thing and mentioning that they found evidence of plans for such attacks. Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared. WP. June 27, 2002



To: Innovative

Print version of article from 2002 — full article on one page. Very informative, that’s why I saved it at the time. Definitely worth reading. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061200711_pf.html (For those who pay attention, link says 2006, but article says 2002. I think it’s from 2002, and may have been “reprinted” in 2006. Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared

Terrorists at Threshold of Using Internet as Tool of Bloodshed, Experts Say By Barton Gellman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, June 27, 2002 “U.S. analysts believe that by disabling or taking command of the floodgates in a dam, for example, or of substations handling 300,000 volts of electric power, an intruder could use virtual tools to destroy real-world lives and property. They surmise, with limited evidence, that al Qaeda aims to employ those techniques in synchrony with “kinetic weapons” such as explosives. “The event I fear most is a physical attack in conjunction with a successful cyber-attack on the responders’ 911 system or on the power grid,” Ronald Dick, director of the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center, told a closed gathering of corporate security executives hosted by Infraguard in Niagara Falls on June 12. In an interview, Dick said those additions to a conventional al Qaeda attack might mean that “the first responders couldn’t get there . . . and water didn’t flow, hospitals didn’t have power. Is that an unreasonable scenario? Not in this world. And that keeps me awake at night.” Regarded until recently as remote, the risks of cyber-terrorism now command urgent White House attention. Discovery of one acute vulnerability — in a data transmission standard known as ASN.1, short for Abstract Syntax Notification — rushed government experts to the Oval Office on Feb. 7 to brief President Bush. The security flaw, according to a subsequent written assessment by the FBI, could have been exploited to bring down telephone networks and halt “all control information exchanged between ground and aircraft flight control systems.”



by 2 posted onby Innovative (None are so blind that will not see.)

To: Innovative

Who knows... Maybe it will happen sometime in November.



To: Innovative

But, but, but, how can this be? Didn't Dear Leader declare ("proclaim?") that the War on Terror was for all practical purposes (since he, single-handedly, dispatched OBL?) over? Yep, as it has been since the declaration of our former, naive, duped, ill-informed, Compassionate Conservative, Boosh, that we were not "at war" against Islam, it remains to this very day (throughout the world) that somehow they didn't get that "memo," thus they continue to wage Jihad against all Infidels and Un-believers and will continue to do so (as they have done relentlessly for 1,400 years) until they conquer the World and force all to "submit" to their eeevil, cult-cum "Religion of Pieces." Here's to the psychotic, murdering, pederast, profit, Moo-Ham-Mud, may PBUM (uh, that would be Pee Be Upon Him)



To: Innovative

Given how much of our tech industry has been put in the hands of Red China and India (not an outright enemy, but not an ally either), I see these alarms as ridiculous bread & circuses for the masses. The US has done nothing to secure it’s tech sector; in fact it has thrown caution to the wind to drive salaries and prices down in the field, and has built up Red China’s economy in the process.



To: Innovative

They’ve been saying this “grid protection” crap for how many years? Ten-plus? Worthless, do-nothing, corrupt, criminal US Congress-critter lowlifes, all.



by 6 posted onby carriage_hill (All liberals & most demoncraps think that life is just a sponge bath, with a happy ending.)

To: Innovative

Yet, we keep letting them inside our borders. We even have one squatting in our WH.



To: Innovative

Good thing we will have Obamacare watching over our medical records.



by 8 posted onby unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)

To: Innovative

Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said in the statement. "Congress needs to act now to protect the American public from a possible devastating attack on our electric grid, water delivery systems or financial networks, for example." Here we go again! This wrinkled up fascist is the ugly mug behind every Big Brother bill that comes down the pike. After news of the obamanation known as NDAA's passage came out the public has been pushing back on SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA. The only thing they hawk to the little sheep is fear. The TSA was supposed to go after al qaeda and instead they're going after Granny and returning vets. Who do you think the target for this latest fear mongering for control of the internet is really is. Sure, they're saying al qaeda now - those same fleabitten pedos we're simultaneously aiding in their "arab spring" - but the agenda is actually about shutting down Jim Robinson, Drudge, Breitbart, Beck and Alex Jones, the latter who's tinfoil I proudly don despite the ridicule he gets from all sides. The government has no interest in going after the terrorists - it's too convenient a boogie man. The government just wants the power to go after anybody who criticizes it, and that is you and me FRiends. Forget duck bites, the Soros tools have been emboldened to bite big bloody chunks out of our Constitution, and the saddest part is that they are mostly getting away with it. But it's not all doom and gloom. There's a better than good chance the Supremes will strike down obamneycare and a lefty judge, of all people, just struck down part of NDAA. There are faint candles of Liberty flickering in the headwinds of the Police Globe agenda.



by 9 posted onby Sirius Lee (When we cease to be good we'll cease to be great. Be for Goode.)

To: Innovative





This is just another (obvious) way for the government to claim the bad guys are gonna get you, if we don't take away more of your liberties, under the veil of security. I'm not falling for it.

Considering Al-Qaeda was created by the CIA in order for the govt to create fear, in order to instill their powers and control over us....I'm not really too worried.This is just another (obvious) way for the government to claim the bad guys are gonna get you, if we don't take away more of your liberties, under the veil of security. I'm not falling for it.

by 10 posted onby Lucky9teen (Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.~Thomas Jeffer)

To: Innovative

An al Qaeda video calling for "electronic jihad" illustrates the urgent need for cybersecurity standards for the most critical networks in the United States, a group of senators said. Wow, we need UN control of the Internet now more than ever! We better vote some help in before our cyberspace is destroyed.



by 11 posted onby EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)

To: Lucky9teen

"There are no sides. There's no Sunnis and Shiites. There's no Democrats and Republicans. There's only HAVES and HAVE-NOTS."



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