A Cyber Assassination Confirmed?

By Kevin Coleman — Defense Tech Cyber Warfare correspondent

Almost three years ago here on DefenseTech we blogged about cyber assassination and received some ‘interesting’ feedback on and off the blog. Some events that were made public recently demand we revisit this topic. Just recently, a news article appeared in the Daily Sun – Voice of the Nation that prompted a flood of conversations. The article, “Cyber Terrorism Hits Nigeria” openly disclosed a cyber assignation of a mob boss that took place not that long ago.

In Italy, not too long ago, a mob boss was shot but survived the shooting. That night, while he was in the hospital, the assassins hacked into the hospital computer and changed his medication so that he would be given a lethal injection. He was a dead man a few hours later. They then changed the medication order back to its correct form, after it had been incorrectly administered, to cover their tracks so that the nurse would be blamed for the “accident.”

In March 2009 Joseph Weiss, a control systems expert and Managing Partner of Applied Control Solutions, testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee stating that networks powering industrial control systems have been breached more than 125 times in the past decade, with one breach resulting in American deaths.

Clearly the evidence is mounting that cyber attacks are not only disruptive, but deadly.

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September 29th, 2010 | Around the Globe, Cyber Security Center | 31 Comments