Cyber attacks on utilities, industries rise

U.S. utilities and industries face a rising number of cyber break-ins by attackers using more sophisticated methods, a senior Homeland Security Department official said during the government’s first media tour of secretive defense labs intended to protect the nation’s power grid, water systems and other vulnerable infrastructure.

Acting DHS Deputy Undersecretary Greg Schaffer told reporters Sept. 29 that the world’s utilities and industries increasingly are becoming vulnerable as they wire their industrial machinery to the Internet.

"We are connecting equipment that has never been connected before to these global networks," Schaffer said. Disgruntled employees, hackers and perhaps foreign governments "are knocking on the doors of these systems, and there have been intrusions."

Full Story: http://idahobusinessreview.com/2011/09/30/us-cyber-attacks-on-utilities-industries-rise/