longer.blue

Trump allows Iranian hackers to attack our infrastructure at will. Republican blundering putting the entire country in peril and the simply don’t know what to do about. The blithering fools in the Trump administration never once considered what every other government on earth knew; if you messed with Iran they, with little or no effort, would shut down the Strait of Hormuz and disrupt the entire supply of oil worldwide. Typical bullies, because they thought they had military strength, thought they could dictate to third-world countries but soon found their sorry asses getting kicked to the sandy beaches in the Gulf. Bumbling and stumbling like drunks on New Years Eve they lie, and lie, and lie, saying they are winning the war while our economy falters and citizens have difficulty simply putting food on the table. Your government -- the Republicans and Trump -- are doing more harm to our country than North Korea, China, and Russia, combined. And this is only the beginning of Iran’s complete control over America. They don’t need airplanes, warships, missiles and bombs to display their complete superiority over us; a handful of hackers in a desert shack is all they need to dominate us. They have shown the ease with which they can shut down some of our water systems just last week. This week they did the same with some of England’s electrical supply. And here comes the saddest part of all this gross incompetence. We once had a small army of experts who monitored our computer systems – protected them from harm, and Trump fired them – all 1000 so he could use their salaries to replace the money lost on tax breaks for his friends and family. Such is the state of our country today, practically groveling before our enemies. The Republicans are again lying through their teeth again, trying to convince you to give them another chance with your vote. Will you wait to decide, risking Iran and her proxies will next shut down our entire defense network in the interim? See this – boldface mine: Iran-linked hackers suspected in UK power-plant shutdown after alleged Minnesota water attack Story by Morgan Phillips • 4h • 3 min read Iran-linked hackers are suspected of forcing a small British power generator offline for four days last month, the latest sign that Tehran-linked cyber activity may be moving from probing vulnerable systems to causing disruptions U.S. officials have long warned about. Iran-linked hackers were behind the outage, according to British security officials who spoke with multiple news outlets. "To be clear: there was no threat to the wider grid and nobody lost power. We have one of the most resilient energy systems in the world," UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks said in a statement. He described the generator as "tiny" but said his department had briefed CEOs following the intrusion on "steps they should take to stay secure." The British shutdown came weeks after hackers struck more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota, accessing technology used to remotely monitor and control pumps and other equipment. Minnesota officials have not publicly attributed the attacks. Several news outlets, citing U.S. officials and a leaked industry threat-sharing memo, reported that Iran was the likely culprit. President Donald Trump has publicly rejected that assessment, saying he did not believe Iran was to blame. Together, the incidents are putting civilian infrastructure at the center of another front in the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. As the military confrontation stretches into its sixth month, relatively small and often lightly defended water and energy facilities offer hackers a way to cause physical disruption without penetrating a major power grid or striking a military target. Those facilities can be especially vulnerable because many rely on internet-connected industrial control systems that allow operators to monitor and manage physical equipment remotely. Once inside, hackers can interrupt operations, lock out operators or manipulate controls for pumps and other machinery. In a July alert, the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency said malicious actors had targeted water and wastewater utilities in at least seven states by accessing exposed programmable logic controllers and changing their internet addresses and passwords. Some incidents disrupted water operations, causing reported pressure loss and flooding. Federal agencies have also warned that Iranian-affiliated actors have targeted similar industrial devices across water, energy and government sectors, seeking access to the software used to control them. That activity has already caused operational disruptions and financial losses. Iranian hackers have pursued U.S. infrastructure before. The threat extends beyond industrial systems. On Aug. 18, the Justice Department charged 17 members of an Iran-based company with carrying out a sweeping cyber theft campaign targeting hundreds of universities, private companies and government agencies. Prosecutors said many of the intrusions were conducted on behalf of the IRGC and other Iranian entities and resulted in the theft of more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property. In 2016, the Justice Department charged an Iranian hacker with gaining access to the control system for a dam in Rye, New York. The dam’s sluice gate had been disconnected for maintenance at the time, preventing him from manipulating water levels and flow rates. More recently, U.S. agencies linked an IRGC-affiliated campaign known as CyberAv3ngers to compromises of Israeli-made industrial controllers at dozens of U.S. facilities in late 2023 and early 2024, including water and wastewater systems, energy companies, food manufacturers and health care organizations. The campaign exploited devices exposed to the public internet that were still using default passwords. The more recent attacks underscore how little access may be required to produce a physical effect. In Minnesota, compromised controllers affected systems used to track water levels, pressure, pump operations and equipment alarms; in some communities, equipment was temporarily taken offline while operators restored systems. Whether Tehran intends a wider campaign against Western infrastructure remains unclear. But the four-day shutdown in Britain illustrates what hackers can do once they gain access to a small industrial system: disrupt physical operations without breaching a major grid operator or triggering a blackout large enough to invite an immediate military response. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/iran-linked-hackers-suspected-in-uk-power-plant-shutdown-after-alleged-minnesota-water-attack/ar-AA2aPIv1? For more free articles about the Tyranny of the Trump/republican administration: https://mcdermottm.substack.com/publish/posts