Chinese-linked hackers have snooped around critical US infrastructure and have put themselves in a position to attack at “the right moment,” FBI director Christopher Wray ominously warned. Speaking at the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, Wray underscored that the bureau and other federal authorities have been scrambling behind the scenes to counter the threat, which he said is “upon us now.” “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has made it clear that it consider
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Moving goods via rail remains one of the most popular modes of transportation. In a typical year, US freight railroads move around 1.6 billion tons across nearly 140,000 miles of track. US citizens traveled more than 12.5 billion kilometers by rail in 2021, through the automobile remains the king in the US. Thousands of railways, from national and regional networks to intra-city light rails, have been built to connect the country and its industries, turning rail into a critical component of t
Security researchers have warned that countless global organizations might be at risk of remote compromise after discovering more than 8000 exposed Virtual Network Computing (VNC) instances. Virtual networking enables communication between multiple computers, virtual machines (VMs), virtual servers, or other devices across different office and data center locations. While physical networking connects computers through cabling and other hardware, virtual networking extends these capabilities by u
Electric vehicles (EV) appear to be a vital part of the present (and future) state of the US auto market. In the past, there has been EV hope and hype; now the rapid adoption of electric vehicles is finally here. As an example, Tesla was only one month away from bankruptcy in the recent past and now is thriving. In 2011, there were only 16,000 battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the road. In mid-2021, that number had grown to over 2 million vehicles. In fact, auto executives expe
There is an English ballad which was first published in the 1640’s titled, The World Turned Upside Down. Many believe the current international geo-political atmosphere meets this time aged ballad. The US has publicly accused Russia of being responsible for last week’s cyber-attacks targeting Ukraine’s defense ministry and major banks. Now some experts believe Russia could escalate malicious cyber activity and conduct sophisticated cyber-attacks on the West too. If this occurs, the attacks w
With the ability to largely secure critical infrastructure from ground level attacks and a current strong focus on cybersecurity, a potential new attack vector from the air is being presented with the wide availability of citizen drones.
Originally reported through Popular Mechanics[1] who obtained reports in a 28 October 2021 US government bulletin, media describes a crashed drone found on the roof of a building next to a Pennsylvania substation in July 2020. Experts believe the drone was like
Critical infrastructure in any country relies on energy sources and transmission for proper and safe national operations. A direct cyber shot was delivered to the US oil and gas industry by a Russian criminal group known as DarkSide. DarkSide was identified in the ransomware attack that shut down the US-Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, which immediately created fuel shortages to cars, trucks, and the airline industry. The ransom of $5 million USD was eventually paid to get the pipeline back i
US Lawmakers and security experts have expressed disappointment that US President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan does not include funding to protect vital facilities against the growing threat of cyberattacks. This infrastructure package failed to provide money to defend critical systems, such as the US power grid, against hackers, according to media sources last week. “Any critical infrastructure modernization must take cybersecurity into account from the start,” said the OT d
