ABC News, NBC Major News on Infowar, source? RUSSIA!!!greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
NBC and ABC had pieces about a concerted, large scale attack on defense computers tonight. ALso, ABC repots that Russia may be the source of this. I'm concerned, but let's not assume it's the Russians doing this, because that just doesn't make any sense. Think about it. Sorry no link, but it's on the ABC web site, and BBC has something about the satellite hack.
-- Nate Bodensteiner (rhizome@uwwc.com), March 04, 1999
Here's the ABC article:http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/pentagonrussia990304.ht ml
Cyber-Attack Mounted Through Russia
Who's hacking into the Pentagon's computers? Some think it might be Russia or a country routing through Russian computers. (ABCNEWS.com)
By Barbara Starr
ABCNEWS.com
W A S H I N G T O N, March 4 The Pentagons military computer systems are being subjected to ongoing, sophisticated and organized cyber-attacks, officials there tell ABCNEWS.
And unlike in past attacks by teenage hackers, officials believe the latest series of strikes at defense networks may be a concerted and coordinated effort coming from abroad.
Until today, the Defense Department had not publicly acknowledged this latest cyber-war.
But in an interview with ABCNEWS, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, who oversees all Pentagon computer security matters, confirmed the attacks have occurred over the last several months and called them a major concern.
This is an ongoing law enforcement and intelligence matter, said Hamre, who last month briefed the House Armed Services Committee on the attacks in a classified session.
Firewalls Breached?
The investigation is looking at a pattern of attacks that has not been seen before. Officials tell ABCNEWS there are several matters under investigation, and it is not clear to what extent the cyber- attacks are all linked.
Sources insist no classified networks have been breached, but they do say attacks have been aimed at sensitive information that may be locked behind firewalls and computer passwords.
Officials believe some of the most sophisticated attacks are coming from Russia. Federal investigators are detecting probes and attacks on U.S. military research and technology systems including the nuclear weapons laboratories run by the Department of Energy.
What is not clear, however, is whether the attacks are coming directly from Russia or whether the probes are coming from other countries that are simply routing through Russian computer addresses to disguise their origin.
Initial indications are that, wherever the probes and attacks are originating abroad, they are not from individuals. But U.S. officials say they would treat any Russian threat similarly whether it comes from the government, industry or high-technology interests.
A Russian Gateway for Espionage
The U.S. National Counterintelligence Center, or NACIC, which monitors espionage activities worldwide, has been tracking the threats posed by lack of official security systems on Russian computer networks for some time. A September 1998 NACIC report noted Kremlin statements that foreign secret services were regularly penetrating Russian computer networks.
U.S. officials believe, however, that there may be an even more disturbing problem: Foreign government hackers may be getting help from within the U.S. government.
We are increasingly concerned about those who have legitimate access to our networks the trusted insider, Hamre told the House committee in a written statement on Feb. 23. I cannot emphasize strongly enough the seriousness of the insider threat to our information systems and, through those systems, to the Departments operations.
Senior Defense Department officials are being briefed regularly on the investigations into the insider threat.
Congressional Concerns
Indeed, the Pentagon has quietly established a new organization the Joint Counterintelligence Evaluation Office which is tracking foreign intelligence services attempts to gain access to critical Defense Department technologies as well as their attempts to penetrate information infrastructure and U.S. military operations. All of the military services are beefing up their own counterintelligence efforts as well.
Hamres closed-door appearance has sparked a new round of concerns in Congress. Pentagon computer systems are probed about 60 times a day with as many as 60 actual computer attacks each week. Many of these are from more typical hackers, and the Defense Department has the capability to freeze out access to government networks.
But the current situation is far more serious, according to Congress. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the House Armed Services Research and Development Subcommittee, told ABCNEWS: What weve been seeing in recent months is more of what could be a coordinated attack, that could be some attack we have not yet fully uncovered that could be involved in a very planned effort to acquire technology and information about our systems in a way that we have not seen before.
-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 04, 1999.
Nate & Kevin,Saw it too.
Is this somehow linked to the U.K. military communications satellite held hostage? Just curious at the timing of it all. Both are thought possibly to be an inside job.
Why now? Why inside?
And recall, Y2K and terrorism are being linked. Not to seem paranoid, but it all seems somewhat staged. Is that intentional? I wonder?
Diane
See also thread ...
OH S**T!! - BRITAIN'S MILITARY SATTELITE - HELD BY HACKERS!!
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000YIG
-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 04, 1999.
Diane,How, at this point could we be anything but paranoid?
I suppose we will have to watch and wait and gather pieces. I think there is more to be found here.
Does anyone remember the mention that the military didn't take time to do thorough background checks on the people they brought in to work on their computers? Hmmmmm.
Off to search.
-- Deborah (info@wars.com), March 04, 1999.
Dianne and Deborah, a lot of those pieces can be found on the y2k nuclear and missiles thread.
-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), March 04, 1999.
"Until today, the Defense Department had not publicly acknowledged this latest cyber-war.But in an interview with ABCNEWS, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, who oversees all Pentagon computer security matters, confirmed the attacks have occurred over the last several months and called them a major concern. "
Diane, you remember the discussions we had about all this cyber-terrorism mention and not much Y2K by the gov a few months ago? We wondered then if all this sudden talk of cyber-terrorism was a diversion for Y2K.
That quote up there would answer that. It could very well be that the pentagon and the gov is much more worried of the immediate threat this poses than Y2K. And since England is our close alie, the satelite highjack could be linked to this also.
-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 04, 1999.
Hey, ya'll, this one KNOCKS YER SOCKS OFF !!!READ THE ARTICLE BELOW
Pentagon and Hackers in CyberwarRead what Hamre says will happen if computers go down. He admits the catastrophes here! Gearing us up fast for Y2K, it's unmistakable.
Also, look at Drudge Report:
EXCLUSIVE: CAMERAS WATCH LOS ANGELES STREETS, SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER HOUSES COMMANDER CENTER READY FOR Y2KBoy, try ta spend a day doing other duties, and look at the breaking news. Sheesh! Gotta run, will post later ...
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.
Leska,I see what you mean about the MSNBC article. Here are two quotes from it...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/246801.asp
[snip]
Its not a matter of if America has an electronic Pearl Harbor its a matter of when, said Rep. Curtis Weldon, R-Penn.
[snip]
In speeches and interviews, Clarke has been unsparing in his declarations of the threat. He told The New York Times in a recent interview: Im talking about people shutting down a citys electricity, shutting down 911 systems, shutting down telephone networks and transportation systems. You black out a city, people die. Black out lots of cities, lots of people die. Its as bad as being attacked by bombs.
An attack on American cyberspace is an attack on the United States, just as much as a landing on New Jersey, he said. The notion that we could respond with military force against a cyberattack has to be accepted.
[snip]
-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 04, 1999.
Yeah, Kevin, I had the same reaction. Makes you wonder with all of the talk on the other Russia thread why anyone would even bother with nukes when you can effectively get your enemy digitally "without firing a shot". Scary stuff lately - what a week so far between the Senate report and this cyberwarfare news. Yikes!
-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), March 04, 1999.
This little bump in the road is called W A RP R E P A R E !
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 04, 1999.
Sounds like the Mother of all potholes to me.
-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), March 04, 1999.
Ill just throw another angle into the terrorism pot so-to-speak. Its all been linked before -- bio and cyber -- into the Y2K soup.This is WHY, what we think we see with the dot gov and dot mil types, is not ALL about Y2K.
Diane, *Big Sigh*
Posted at 5:26 p.m. PST Wednesday, March 3, 1999
CIA warns of biological warfare threat
http:/ /www.mercurycenter.com/breaking/docs/083620.htmChicago Tribune
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. faces an increasingly dangerous and sophisticated biological warfare threat from hostile nations and terrorists, the Central Intelligence Agency warned Wednesday.
Appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, CIA non- proliferation chief John Lauder said that Iraq, North Korea, Libya and Syria are among a dozen nations that either have or are developing biological weapons.
Some rogue nations see biological warfare as an easy, attainable means to counter U.S. superiority in conventional weapons and as a way to dominate their own regions, Lauder said.
Militant Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden's organization and other terrorist groups are also seeking germ warfare weapons, as are ``lone militants,'' similar to those responsible for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, ``who may try to conduct a BW (biological weapons) attack,'' he said.
Lauder said intelligence agencies can't fully protect against such threats. ``There are, and there will remain, significant gaps in our knowledge (of potential threats),'' he said. ``There is a continued and growing risk of surprise.''
The CIA's warning comes as the Pentagon, the White House and Congress have embarked on a crash program to develop a national missile defense system to protect the U.S. from attack by hostile nations such as North Korea and Iraq. Missile technology is easily adaptable to biological warfare, Lauder said in his testimony.
Ken Alibek, the former head of the Soviet Union's biological weapons program who defected to the United States in 1992, told the committee that a single, twin-engine, medium-range bomber could carry enough deadly biological agents to infect a four-mile-wide area.
Lauder cited Iraq as a major worry, especially in the absence of UN weapons inspections.
``Iraq finally admitted in 1995 that it had produced a half-million liters of BW agents, such as anthrax, botulinum toxin and aflatoxin,'' Lauder said. ``The United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) believes that Iraq produced substantially greater amounts -- three to four times greater. We are concerned that Baghdad retains a small BW weapons capability and may resurrect a robust offensive BW program within weeks if there is no viable inspection regime in place.''
Part of the problem is that biological warfare research and development operations can be easily hidden or disguised as legitimate biological research, Lauder said.
``Even supposedly `legitimate' facilities can readily conduct clandestine BW research and can convert rapidly to agent production, providing a mobilization or `breakout' capability,'' he said.
Many countries like Iran are becoming self-sufficient in the materials they need for biological weapons production and are becoming increasingly more sophisticated in developing new forms of toxins and germ warfare agents.
``As deadly as they are now, BW agents could become even more sophisticated,'' Lauder said. ``Rapid advances in biotechnology present the prospect of a wholly new array of toxins or live agents that will require new detection methods and preventative measures, including vaccines and therapies.''
Smallpox, recently thought to be eradicated from the world, has returned as a potential weapon of war. The Pentagon has begun a large- scale program of inoculating servicemen and women against deadly anthrax contamination.
Under legislation sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and former Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, the federal government has begun training local law enforcement, public health and emergency medical personnel in Chicago and other major cities on ways to deal with biological and chemical attacks.
``Gains in genetic engineering are making it increasingly difficult for us to recognize all the agents threatening us,'' Lauder said. ``Also, BW attacks need not be directed only at humans. Plant and animal pathogens may be used against agricultural targets, creating potential economic devastation.''
He said the CIA is adding agents in the field and analysts at headquarters to meet the challenge of biological warfare.
Committee Chairman Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., said he held the open session as ``a wake-up call'' to alert Americans to the new threat, which he called ``truly horrifying.''
-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 04, 1999.
Chris,I think "they" are worried about the whole kit 'n kaboodle. That's why it's all linked.
Diane
-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 04, 1999.
I can hear the spin now, should Y2k outages come to fruition."We (the government) didn't screw up -- it was cyber-terrorists!" "We (corporate America) didn't screw up -- it was those cyber-terrorists!" "That's why the power is off, that's why the phones don't work, and that's why the banks are closed."
The groundwork for finger-pointing and blame is now being laid. First, nebulous hints from the prez, the hostage U.K. satellite, now this. Do you in your wildest imagination think the Pentagon would make any electronic attack on their computer systems public knowledge? This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
-- Nathan (nospam@all.com), March 04, 1999.
Here's a juicy tie-in, courtesy Drudge via Drew :-)
EXCLUSIVE: CAMERAS WATCH L.A. STREETS, SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER READY TO BECOME Y2K COMMAND CENTER[ For Educational Purposes Only ]
**Exclusive**
Under L.A., ready for Y2K! Five stories below the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles there is a secret computer command center -- a command center that has enough power, food and water to sustain 50 people for two years!
The DRUDGE REPORT has learned, the bunker, named ATSAC [Automated Traffic Signal And Control], would become a high-tech command center used to monitor any civil unrest during a Y2K breakdown!
The compound is reached by a secret elevator located on the parking level of the Federal Building.
In order to gain access to the ATSAC area you must pass through 4 bank-style vault doors.
The city's high-tech bunker has been designed to survive a San Andreas rip and a nuclear explosion.
The main area of the complex is a large space with one 180 degree semi-circular wall stretching along one half of the room.
Feeling and looking like a STAR TREK set, the lower work area has dozens of computer consoles, which will be powered by diesel fuel generators if power is cut.
The upper wall is filled with two rows of 40 large flat panel display screens -- screens that monitor views from remote controlled cameras placed throughout the Los Angeles area.
"These cameras are our eyes," one government source tells the DRUDGE REPORT.
One camera pans across the infamous Florence and Normandie intersection. One camera is mounted on the South East corner of the MTA building; another is on the North West. One camera is at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Vignes looking out on the intersection by the new city jail.
One camera placed on the roof of a 28-story building has demonstrated dramatic zoom capabilities. With the camera, you could spot a pimple on someone's face on street level.
The DRUDGE REPORT has not been able to learn how many cameras have been placed throughout the city, but most appear to be mounted on public buildings.
The city council and the mayor would ride out a social breakdown episode inside of ATSAC, according to one emergency plan.
Suggestions that officials should be moved to the bunker before New Years Day Y2K, so far, have been met with complete resistance.
"Nobody in their right mind wants to watch the dawn of a new century from five floors below Los Angeles," laughed one well-placed City Hall source.
The bunker, built with local and federal tax revenue, is strictly off limits to the general public.
**********************
SCIENTISTS SAY THEY CAN PROVE: ACTIVE EARTHQUAKE FAULT RUNS UNDER LOS ANGELES!
Scientists have identified [Thursday] a major new fault under downtown Los Angeles: The Puente Hills blind thrust. The fault, which is active, lies hidden in the basement of the city and is capable of producing a devastating earthquake. Scientists have suspected the existence of such faults under the city for many years, this is the first solid proof that one actually exists. Researchers using a new technique, including info once jealously guarded by oil and gas companies, have mapped out the hidden fault and plan to debut their findings later Thursday afternoon... M. DRUDGE IN HOLLYWOOD
================================================================
HeeHeeheeheehehehehe, sounds like they put that bunker in a weel weel smart place! Lessee, if that fault struts its stuff @ January 17, 2000 ...
xxxxxxx xxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 05, 1999.
Hmm...I was just reading an article on Tony Blair and Y2K, and came across this story...http://www.excite.co.uk/news/news_story/technology/tech6.txt
SATELLITE HACK 'DID NOT HAPPEN'
last updated 05/03/99 04:24
Hackers did not take control of a UK military satellite, contrary to recent reports, according to a Ministry of Defence spokesman. Stories about the alleged hack circulated widely on the Internet in the last three days after the original story was printed in a UK newspaper.
But MoD officials stressed: "The story is absolutely incorrect. It's rubbish."
To gain access to a satellite control system, a hacker would have first had to break into high security MoD establishments first, the spokesman said.
MoD computers are run on a closed network with no outside access whatsoever, he stressed.
He said there had been attempts to hack MoD web sites, which the police were investigating, but there had been no attempts at reaching any military satellites.
The story has found its way on to various newsgroups, web sites and discussion lists since being picked up by other media.
It claimed a hacker had changed the orientation of a satellite and demanded money from the authorities afterwards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 05, 1999.
Drudge Report: exclusive on secret LA preparations for Y2K xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 05, 1999.
billy wanted a chip called clipper intel makes a chip that marked our use billy bitches about terrorism stories are leaked about cyber attacks congress has the excuse the networks spread the desease everyone sits around and bitches about it the sheeple didn't care we loose the last bastion of free speech
-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), March 05, 1999.
How many unfortunate Jews, gypsys, Catholics, etc thought they were going to hygeinic relocation camps when they boarded the trains? How much freakin' evidence do people need before they realize what's coming down?! Rise and shine, folks! Turn off that damn hypnotic monster in your family room, and wake up! (Has there ever been a thread on this forum about the movie 'They Live,' by John Carpenter?)
-- Spidey (in@jam.com), March 05, 1999.
Folks, keep in mind that no information is voluntarily released to the public by any government agency unless it serves an internal purpose.
-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 05, 1999.
How many of you look up at the clouds and see things, boats, faces, whatever? I look up at the sky and see clouds with a chance of rain or snow. Paranoia doesn't begin to describe this thread. I started working on security for the gov 10 years ago. I can assure you they have been worried about hackers breaking in to their systems for some time. I know about the stuff readily available on the web to use in these breakins and also know of ways to prevent them. I also know that the gov can handle more than one problem at a time, contrary to what you may believe. You're no longer looking at the gnat now but you're trying to examine the gnat's hair.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), March 05, 1999.
Maria,yeah, you're right, paranoia does not describe this thread. Sorry about being so concerned about the fact that our old nuclear enemy is a leaking radioactive mess with no clear leader and millions of cold and hungry people, resembling something like pre-Nazi Germany on pooorly manufacutred LSD, and that now we may be engaging in some kind of new, abstract warfare/game with them, and that many of their computers are going to crash soon themselves, and the "leaders" over there are who? Study the Russian political situation right now (experts are now calling it a "failed state") and then make yourself a nice stiff screwdriver because you might have come to the same conclusion I have, namely, that thees no point in stockpiling survival gear because we are probably all going to be dead in a short period of time. So ring the bells that still ring and party on.
-- Nate Bodensteiner (rhizome@uwwc.com), March 05, 1999.
Nate, Maria is incapable to come to any conclusions on her own. She relies on official media to think for her. And she certainly won't do any research from anything us paranoid suggest and give links to. We're paranoid and she's not, remember?
-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 05, 1999.
Just thought people here would be interested in this. It's not really related, but in it there are some very bizarre if not chilling quotes.
link3/5/99 -- 1:08 PM
46 years after Stalin's death, grandson rallies neo-Stalinists
MOSCOW (AP) - From certain angles, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili bears a chilling resemblance to the late Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. His mustache is thinner and his eyes less penetrating, but it's easy to understand why he was once chosen to play Stalin on film. Nor is it any coincidence: Dzhugashvili is Stalin's grandson.
A retired Soviet army colonel who spent most of his life in history's shadows, Dzhugashvili has now set forth on a quixotic - and, most people would say, disturbing - quest: to revive his grandfather's legacy.
To that end, he has helped create a Stalin Bloc of political extremist groups, and has been speaking at angry rallies of nationalists and communists, many brandishing portraits of his grandfather.
``I've always been proud of Stalin,'' Dzhugashvili, 63, said in an interview this week in Moscow. ``And when they started to insult him and launched a slander campaign, if I'd had a gun I would have killed those people.''
On Friday, Dzhugashvili joined about 300 other neo-Stalinists in Stalin's hometown of Gori, Georgia, to mark the 46th anniversary of the dictator's death, on March 5, 1953.
``The right cause of Stalin will prevail!'' declared rally leader Panteleimon Georgadze, chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Georgia. The group placed Soviet flags, pinned with black ribbons, near Stalin's old home.
Such rallies are held annually in Georgia. Similar groups hold frequent demonstrations in Russia, where a small fringe movement of neo-Stalinists has tried to gain leverage from Russia's economic crisis and reclaim the Kremlin.
Few people knowledgeable about Russian politics believe a new Stalin is to be found in this ragtag collection of extreme nationalists, anti-Semites and radical communists.
``To my mind, there is no danger,'' said Andrei Ryabov, a political analyst with both the Gorbachev Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
To many Russians, Stalin remains a loathsome figure who ruled by terror and killed millions of his own people. But a sizable minority of mostly older people still revere him as the man who built the Soviet Union into a superpower and presided over its victory in World War II.
Dzhugashvili adheres to the latter view. Told that many people in the former Soviet Union despise his grandfather's memory, he bristled. ``Your information is wrong,'' he said coolly. ``Stalin is not hated. He is loved. Stalin is hated only by the authorities. Why? Because only swindlers take high-ranking posts now. ... Ordinary people say, `We would like to have Stalin back.'''
Dzhugashvili is one of eight Stalin grandchildren, and his is an especially tragic legacy. He still uses the Georgian surname that was Stalin's family name, and lives in Tbilisi, Georgia, not far from Gori.
His father was Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's oldest son, whose mother died when he was an infant.
Yakov is best known as the Stalin son who was captured by the Germans during World War II. Germany offered Stalin a swap - Yakov in exchange for a high-ranking German POW. The Soviet leader adamantly refused, regarding his son as a traitor for having fallen into enemy hands. Yakov died in a German prison camp, an apparent suicide.
As the son of an outcast, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili never met his grandfather. He was 17 when Stalin died. ``The first time I saw him was in his coffin,'' Dzhugashvili said, recalling that the Soviet leadership dispatched a special plane to pick him up at his school in the northern city of Tver and bring him to Moscow for the funeral.
Dzhugashvili appears not to have suffered any serious recriminations as a result of his relationship to Stalin, who was officially denounced by the Soviet leadership several years after his death.
Nor did he accept the denunciations. Dzhugashvili continues to insist that the well-established historical record of Stalin's crimes - the purges, the millions sent to the gulag - is nothing but ``lies and slander.''
He claims all these crimes were the work of Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky and his followers - apparently overlooking the fact that the harshest repression occurred years after Trotsky was ousted from the Soviet leadership by Stalin and exiled from the country.
``Personally, I don't see any mistakes made by Stalin,'' he said. ``He was a leader, he was a patriot.''
He was, in fact, exactly what Russians are yearning for now, Dzhugashvili believes. Polls have shown that many Russians would welcome a strong leader, and not a few would welcome a return to the certainties of Soviet life.
Dzhugashvili appears an unlikely candidate to inherit the mantle, however.
``Yevgeny hasn't any influence, either with political elite or with the public,'' said Ryabov. ``They consider him like a historical monument, a symbol of history.''
-- Deborah (info@wars.com), March 05, 1999.
from csy2k:Y2K May Stop Oil, Start Terrorism - Senate Hearing
March 05, 1999: 12:30 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A. (NB) -- By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes. In the spirit of Warren Zevon, send oil, guns and money -- Y2K is about to hit the international fan.
Year 2000 problems could result in travel and terrorism warnings for Americans abroad, and also may cripple the US' oil import infrastructure, officials from the State and Commerce Departments told the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem today.
The State Department is planning to issue an "initial Y2K travel announcement" that would presage travel warnings urging Americans not to go to places that might put them in danger because of Year 2000-related problems.
"We're looking at a world situation where we face unknown and unintended consequences," US Undersecretary of State Bonnie Cohen told the committee this morning. "We focus on power, telecommunications and water systems...the kinds of things you need to keep the infrastructure of a company running."
Committee Chairman Robert Bennett, R-Utah, asked a senior Commerce Department official whether there were any areas in the world that might be particularly susceptible to terrorist attack by criminals wanting to take advantage of problems the glitch might cause -- and whether that kind of terrorism risk exists.
"I am concerned that (for) people who don't have our best interests at heart...Y2K may be an opportunity to do this," said Michael J. Copps, assistant secretary for trade development in the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration. He did not name any locations that might be more susceptible.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, a member of the Year 2000 committee, said he was especially concerned about a lack of readiness in eastern Russia and Siberia, and the potential pollution and economic problems that could be caused by that region's military buildup and oil pipelines.
"As an Alaskan, I'm quite worried about eastern Russia," Stevens said. "I'm worried as chair of the Appropriations Committee -- we have not really estimated the cost. We haven't seen an analysis of what needs are going to be through next year."
Stevens added that in Russia, where the government cannot even pay its armed forces, "they don't have the money to pay for Y2K." He said that oil pipeline leaks and ruptures could result, as well as military breakdowns.
According to Committee Ranking Democrat Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the US depends on much of its oil supply on countries that mostly are far behind on their Year 2000 compliance efforts. The top five oil exporters to the US are Venezuela (16.2 percent), Canada (15.5 percent), Saudi Arabia (14.4 percent), Mexico (12.9 percent) and Nigeria (7.3 percent). Except for Canada, these countries are between six months to 24 months behind on their compliance efforts, Dodd said.
Dodd also said that the pharmaceutical industry could suffer from other countries' Year 2000 problems. He said that 70 percent of the US insulin supply and 80 percent of the raw materials used in manufacturing pharmaceuticals are imported.
On a brighter front, Bennett and Dodd said that the Defense Department has established formal ties with Moscow on preparing that country's aging conventional and nuclear arsenal for the date change.
Making a reference to Year 2000 litigation, which is the topic of two Senate bills and one House bill, Bennett derided a statement made by Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Democrat Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., who said that attempts to shield large companies from Year 2000-related litigation would allow those companies to "to sell upgrades...and expensive consulting services."
"Critics claim that the American companies sold their software and equipment abroad with the full knowledge that these products contained the Y2K problem," Bennett said. "The US has been accused of creating the Y2K problem so foreign buyers would be forced to upgrade systems more quickly, or purchase expensive consulting services from the US. One French banker went so far as to say that the Y2K problem was invented to distract attention from the euro conversion."
http://www.cnnfn.com/digitaljam/newsbytes/127445.html
rick
---------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 05, 1999.
Chris wrote: "Nate, Maria is incapable to come to any conclusions on her own." What? You obviously have an accurate grip on world events. So how many years did work on security for the gov? What have you studied (outside the web) on Russian strategies and capabilities? "She relies on official media to think for her." Not quite sweetheart, I rely on the work that I've done in gov systems and Y2K projects. You're telling me you rely on stuff you read here? You need to do more research, dear.
-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), March 05, 1999.
By the end of the year you probably won't even hear the phrase "y2k" mentioned by govt - They will refer to it only as "cyberterrorism."The whole charade is so transparent and thin that it would be laughable, were it not for the fact that the govt and the media will repeat the phrase "cyberterrorism" so often, that most of the populace will eventually believe it.
-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 05, 1999.
Moderation questions? read the FAQ