Al Queda hack attack?

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Typhonis 1
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Al Queda hack attack?

Post by Typhonis 1 »

I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.


Is this possible or is is bogus?
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Post by SyntaxVorlon »

Utter bunk, it was mechanical failure in old systems that were run by a company that was already citationed for poor upkeep of a nuclear reactor, ie part of it was corroded and may have failed.
Al Queda hasn't got the right manpower to attack over the internet, and our ice is mightier. They did disrupt trade and commerce and knock out a center point for NYCs internet and telephone communications but that is the extent of their cyber abilities.
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Re: Al Queda hack attack?

Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

Typhonis 1 wrote:I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.


Is this possible or is is bogus?
I doubt it. I suspect the system is so old that the only way Al-Qaeda could have shut it down through computers is by having one of the operators manually flip a wrong switch at the wrong time, and the FBI has already covered that angle.
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Post by Vertigo1 »

They already tried to push the blame on MSBLAST, and that didn't hold up. Now they try to blame Al-Qaeda? Granted, they're kind of a convenient target, but I seriously doubt they're that.....educated when it comes to computers. This is stuff that takes quite a long time to learn.
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Re: Al Queda hack attack?

Post by Kuja »

Typhonis 1 wrote:I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.


Is this possible or is is bogus?
Oh, it certainly COULD have been. But it wasn't.
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Re: Al Queda hack attack?

Post by Hethrir »

Typhonis 1 wrote:I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.


Is this possible or is is bogus?
I didn't think they were allowed to use computers :P
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Re: Al Queda hack attack?

Post by Darth Wong »

Typhonis 1 wrote:I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.
It also "could" have been an ancient Indian curse. That does not make it a reasonable theory.
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Re: Al Queda hack attack?

Post by SyntaxVorlon »

Darth Wong wrote:
Typhonis 1 wrote:I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.
It also "could" have been an ancient Indian curse. That does not make it a reasonable theory.
Probably more likely.
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Post by Crayz9000 »

I've heard that a probable cause was irregular solar output, like what caused the massive Canadian blackout a while back.
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Post by The Yosemite Bear »

SyntaxVorlon wrote:Utter bunk, it was mechanical failure in old systems that were run by a company that was already citationed for poor upkeep of a nuclear reactor, ie part of it was corroded and may have failed.
Al Queda hasn't got the right manpower to attack over the internet, and our ice is mightier. They did disrupt trade and commerce and knock out a center point for NYCs internet and telephone communications but that is the extent of their cyber abilities.
Talk about your brute force DOS attacks, I thought the attack against the chinese gobernment during tianamen was a blunt object DOS...
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Re: Al Queda hack attack?

Post by The Yosemite Bear »

SyntaxVorlon wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
Typhonis 1 wrote:I was looking at a Popular Mechanics mgazine((Oct issue I hink)) and they claim that the massive blackout that affected New Your and Canada could have been a cyber attack by Al Queda.
It also "could" have been an ancient Indian curse. That does not make it a reasonable theory.
Probably more likely.
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