Cyberterrorism & Cyberwar

I hadn't heard about this:

One example of the kind of damaging infrastructure attack that can be expected in the future was the recent cyber attack against Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company Aramco that destroyed some 30,000 computers used to control key elements of that country’s energy infrastructure.

It was part of a larger article which discusses cyberattacks by governments like China (hardly terrorism: taking down a US infrastructure system would be war, not terrorism), al Qaeda, and for profit criminals.

Al Qaeda, nation states, and criminals are preparing for major cyber attacks against U.S. infrastructure that could be comparable to the devastating September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, a senior Justice Department official said on Thursday.

“We’re in a pre-9/11 moment, in some respects, with cyber,” said John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security in the Justice Department.

Electrical grids and financial systems are among the targets.

Without electricity there is no water.

More here.