Yesterday parts of Brazil and Paraguay suffered some of the most serious electrical blackouts in 25 years, including the brief failure of a hydroelectric plant.
But officials there claim sabotage wasn’t the culprit and release this incongruous statement:
Electricity system operators said that there was no evidence of sabotage and that the most likely cause was an unexplained atmospheric disturbance, like heavy rains or winds in the area. “The system is not fragile, it is one of the strongest and most secure in the world,” said Edison Lobão, Brazil’s energy minister.
Well, our cyber warrior Kevin Coleman isn’t so sure:
WOW What a coincidence — isn’t it?
Yesterday Brazilian officials rebuked 60 Minutes and their report that hackers caused electrical power disruption back in 2005 and 2007. Last night Brazil was hit AGAIN by a power Blackout — cause unknown!
12:22 GMT, Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Brazil blackout
A power blackout affecting large parts of Brazil has left millions of people stranded as underground railways, traffic lights, street lights and electric gates were hit.
I love all the discussion focused on how Kevin is essentially crying wolf. Sounds a lot like the naysayers who thought the hyperbolic rantings of a bunch of dudes wearing man dresses and living in caves were just that — until they smashed two jetliners into massive buildings in the United States killing 3,000 Americans.
So, keep up the debate folks. And we’ll keep tracking the “coincidences”…
– Christian
They should repeat the experiment, and insist again that it isn’t hackers.
Third time’s the charm.
To the editor:
You wrote: “Sounds a lot like the naysayers who thought the hyperbolic rantings of a bunch of dudes wearing man dresses and living in caves were just that — until they smashed two jetliners into massive buildings in the United States killing 3,000 Americans. So, keep up the debate folks. And we’ll keep tracking the ‘coincidences’…”
Clap clap, Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau… Eight years after an elephant ( 11 / 9 ) got stuck in your door frame you’re still “tracking coincidences” IN TROPICAL JUNGLES !
They chose you well…
Christian, people gripe about Mr. Coleman because of optics. I have no issue with his qualifications whatsoever and I believe he can offer valuable insight, but you tend to not mention potential conflicts of interest and that Mr. Coleman likely stands to gain personally from raising these issues. Would you seriously publish articles from someone at LM about the need for the Raptor? Would you publish the same article if it came from one of LM’s lobbyists? If you did you would likely clearly outline the conflict of interest for readers and let them make their own best judgment.
I would hazard the guess that most people who question him aren’t dumb enough to believe there is no threat, but they are bright enough to realize that there just may be enough of a conflict of interest there to make it difficult for the average reader to dig through any possible hyperbole.
If you, as the editor, want him taken more seriously then you have an obligation to make even the inconvenient parts as clear as mud for everyone. Not acknowledging the sticky parts does neither your readership nor Mr. Coleman any service.
Let me get this straight. In 2005 and 2007, Brazil had power outages which the government explained as being caused by faulty maintenance and severe weather. “Cyber security experts” believe they were actually caused by hackers. The Brazilian power station was fined several million dollars for their lack of maintenance. In 2009, there is another power outage, with Brazil stating it is due to faulty maintenance and severe weather, and computer people saying they suspect it is due to hackers. No evidence is presented.
I note the Richard Clark quote in the cited article. When does he expect this to happen? If they can attack Brazil, why not a much larger and more visible target, like the US? Why have we not had any power outages? I find it hard to believe that they simply haven’t gotten around to it yet. Is our security that much better? Not according to Mr. Coleman.
This is not the boy who cried wolf. This is closer to the religious fanatic who attributes everything to the wrath of God. Swine flu? Wrath of God. 9/11? Punishment for homosexuality. Earthquakes? Fires? Floods? Punishment for abortions. This is the same thing.
By the way, the new comment system won’t let you post anything substantial. I had to trim my previous post down by about half. That sucks.
Re: Kevin Coleman and coincidences vs. conspiracies.
There is no doubt in my mind that this power outage was caused by Islamic, Buddhist, SS Nazi computer hackers living in Dracula’s castle deep in the forests of the Carpathian mountains.
Paraguay, and Brazil are populated by many Muslims, Japanese, and descendants of German, now masquerading as Mennonites, SS Nazis.
The pathetic explanation that violent weather caused power transmission towers and lines to fail is simply to far fetched to even consider.
Kevin Coleman should do more research.
Nov 10, 1775. The founding of The U.S. Marine Corps.
Nov 10,1989 . The anniversary of The Emperor of Japan, Hirohito’s death.
It is painfully obvious isn’t it!
A substance is introduced into the Internet, and is used to sap and impurify our precious electronic fluidity.
The Japs hate the USA, the Nazis hate the USA, and the Islamics hate the USA.
So they decided to run a field training exercise in South America.
I post a link to Kevin’s company on every entry and it’s plain as day for all to see that he’s in the industry. Sometimes with contributors in the blogosphere you have to weigh backgrounds with expertise. The comparison to LM and the Raptor and a person who runs a cyber security consulting company is apples and oranges. Kevin is deep inside the debate and just because some might disagree with his attrubition of some events to cyber events doesn’t mean he’s simply trying to “drum up business”…This isn’t the blogosphere of old, my friend, and I can’t think of a more tapped in person to discuss exclusive cyber warfare details and events than Kevin.
Respectfully, it isn’t quite so apples and oranges as you make it out to be. If I have over simplified you have just done so too.
I will take exception to the notion that making the name Kevin Coleman a hyperlink to his company is much of an effort at all to draw readers’ attention to the other roles that Mr. Coleman plays in his life. Perhaps you can consider doing what a number of media outlets do and actually post a simple sentence or two (before or after an article) that clearly states Mr. Coleman’s role outside of defensetech. Whether you care to admit it or not the perception of conflict of interest detracts from the message that Mr. Coleman is carrying and to an extent, the journalistic integrity of this site.
These statements are not attacks. They are open and honest feedback, drawn from what appears to be you baiting your readership. If your background is journalism then I think you will find that you don’t have a lot to argue with me. As you said, this isn’t the blogosphere of old and if blogs wish to be treated as respected journalism then they need to adhere to the fundamental tenets of respected journalism.
I will stand by my own belief that Mr. Coleman’s articles can have enough hyperbole that I occasionally have to question his motives — altruism vs. net gain. I have worked in the infosec field for a number of years. Many of the points that he raises are reasonable. However, he does tend to leave out insights that don’t support him and as long as he is benefiting from his overall role I end up occasionally wondering about motive.
Respectfully, it isn’t quite so apples and oranges as you make it out to be. If I have over simplified you have just done so too.
My theory on Zandor is that he’s a very bored Investment Banker or something who never leaves the office — so to entertain himself while waiting for his MD to mark his powerpoint with red pen, he eggs on bunch of defense aficionados. Quite successfully I might add. Am i getting closer Zandor?
Dear –J2;
Since I no longer work as an Investment Banker, and do have some spare time on my hands, I would like to get a ” defense aficionado” diploma, so that I can hang it on my wall just like you do with your’s.
Can I take ” The Defense Aficionado ” education course on line?
My ultimate goal is to earn a Phd. in the subject.
Any suggestions that you might have on this matter would be sincerely appreciated.
Sincerely,
Zandor.
Hey you’re funny buddy, i love you how rile up the crowd.
s/ — Bored Investment Banker
I think it’s Obama
MY theory on Zandor is that he’s a bored porn addict that’s smoking crack… ass crack that is.
TROLL.
You certainly have a way with words, and you are funny too.
Sincerely,
Zandor
LOL Once I see the “Z” I just move on. Come across too many wing-nuts online already.
After Z , just where do you move on to?
Arithmetic?
Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Zandor
When I see, hear, read, a lot of the nay-sayers on this issue, people who say things like, “This isn’t a real threat, etc …“
I think back to the 1990’s when the majority had the same mind set towards terrorism. .….
When I hear people talking about how hackers are as threatening as nuclear weapons, I think of all the doomsayers who were complaining about “Japan Inc” and how they were going to destroy the US.
I don’t know that hackers are as dangerous as nuclear weapons. I certainly never said anything like that. However, cyber warfare, in conjunction with military strikes, or as a form of domestic terrorism is a very real threat.
I think it’s a ‘special’ kid fo threat because of the relative ease for all parties involved to hide behind proxies and to strike globally. Not to mention that a relatively cheap strike can result in big $$ losses for the target.
Nuclear weapons? Obviously not. But a real threat none the less.
“if you’re sourcing McConnell, you might as well just make it up yourself.”
Look the problem with Kevin is he’s just another rather ordinary consultant using hype to sell his products. I mean it’s not as if that isn’t an everyday occurrence. Would it even be a problem if Kevin wasn’t posting the same rubbish over and over again? The monotony just shows complete contempt for the readership.
I’m all for supporting small business but this one is selling thin air. Every enquiry on technical point every is met with a sub-undergraduate level of technical competence. References are made to papers that have conclusions that directly contradict Kevin’s claims. The comments are astro-turfed and anybody asking questions is either ignored or declared a Chinese witch.
Hey I understand Kevins the big vision guy, ready to give a fine speech with all the buzzwords that send everyone to sleep — but hire somebody who knows something or the NSAs latest intern is going to show you up.
It’s painfully obvious that Kevin has no real experience in technical fields let alone the communications, security, industrial control, power or any of the many industries he claims refers have secret inside knowledge of. He went straight into consulting always looking for the next bubble – eBusiness, SAP, the internet bubble, reengineering. Indeed his bio reads like the history of consulting boondoggles 1980 to 2009. And since all those bubbles are long gone and can no longer be soaked now it’s on to the government.
Somebody needs to tell Kevin that when his business plan includes the assumption that “the governments must do this” in it he should throw the thing in the bin and start again.
To the poster “Philo” :
You wrote: “When I see, hear, read, a lot of the nay-sayers on this issue, people who say things like, ‘This isn’t a real threat, etc …’ I think back to the 1990’s when the majority had the same mind set towards terrorism. .….”
There are no “terrorists”, you poor, clue-less sheeple. After that Jewish false-flag attack on 11 / 9, two innocent countries were invaded by you U.S. Americans and defeated you, “nothing else” happened.
Al-Qaeda doesn’t exist either (so far, at least: In the future, if the U.S. American Blitzkriege for “Israel” don’t stop, it could indeed turn into a large social movement in some fundamentalistic Muslim countries) .
LOL I see we have a “Truther” here. I gotta say, there’s a special kind of irony in a “Truther” calling another person a “poor, clue-less sheeple”.
LOL
Carry on truther.…..
(Sorry, the RFID chip implanted in my brain by my Zionist, reptilian, global banker cabal overlords made me say that.…)
To the poster “Philo” :
You wrote: “LOL I see we have a ‘Truther’ here. I gotta say, there’s a special kind of irony in a ‘Truther’ calling another person a ‘poor, clue-less sheeple’. LOL Carry on truther.…..”
I allowed you to peek outside your narrow margins, but you – being shy – refused to. The “human marvel” you are!
You ‘allowed’ me to peek outside my narrow margins? pfffttttt
There’s a special kind of ego-centrism that infests the conspiracy theorists mind. It’s a source of endless entertainment for those of us who do not sit in the ‘tin-foil hat’ crowd.
It’s all a conspiracy man! And of course, only the chosen, special few, (like you) know what’s really going on. The rest of us are of course, simply blind sheeple. LOL
Tell you what. The day that the Zionist, reptilian, global banker’s storm troopers herd us all into black helicopters and ship us off to FEMA camps for our RFID chip implants, I will personally apologize to each and every ‘truther’ I meet.
Until then, you’re a wing-nit
Sincerely,
Philo
(Secret mind-control agent for the Bilderberg Group, Section 7)
To the poster “Philo” :
You wrote: “Tell you what. The day that the Zionist, reptilian, global banker’s storm troopers herd us all into black helicopters and ship us off to FEMA camps for our RFID chip implants, I will personally apologize to each and every ‘truther’ I meet.”
“Where there is smoke, there is fire” and “prevention is better than cure” is still way over your head, huh? I was about to explain that you U.S. Americans are “Whites” only by morphological convergence, but then I remembered that even the blacks in Kongo-Bongo and the last cannibals in Papua New Guinea know the Truth about 11 / 9 … EVERYBODY DOES !!!
oops. sorry about the partial repeat post. Having some difficulty with this reply option.
Hehe…never dare a hacker its bad policy…and like holding a box of fuity pebbles threw a fence and saying hear mister bear and laughing till it bites your arm off.
————————————————————————-
People dont get into serious discussions with the trolls. They feed off it like a fungus. Just ignore Zandor and bomb and any of the other sad, sad people whole troll the internet.
Actually, I think Zandor’s first post on this thread was hilarious. Funniest thing I’d seen all week.
“… and like a box of fuity pebbles threw a fence and saying hear mister bear and laughing till it bites your arm off.”
Dear Valcan;
You are either a psychotic Christian pro war nit wit, or, you you are very,very drunk!!!!!!
My bet would be that you are both.
Congratulations!
By the way. have you ever tried to respond to the subjects in my posts?
I guess it is easier for you not to, but instead, to just thrash out like an upside down turtle.
An Army whose average IQ is less than 100 is not something that the Talibs seem afraid of, is it?
Yet the low IQ, super equipped, US boys look down on the ignorant Talibs.
The USA military ( equipped with unlimited amounts of high self esteem ) is afraid to go beyond the wire after night.
Heroes?
I don’t think so!
If it wasn’t all so uselessly tragic, I would laugh.
Zandor
Ok just this once.
Dear Zandor,
You my friend are either one of three things,
1) A Troll you troll the internet looking to start a flame war and basicaly annoy people. Why people do this i have no idea i asume it involved a gerbal, some lube, and a PVC pipe at a young age. It is literaly as old as the internet. Responding to these sad sad people is a bad idea (which i violate hehe) it is exactly what they want. The best thing is to ban said indiviual or group.
(Continued)
Since you are a Brazilian I can understand why your ” writing / posting ” is so completely incoherent.
Who would expect anything more from a Brazilian than run-of-the mill gutter level idiocy?
In one way, I sort of feel sorry for you, but then again in a million other ways I sure as hell never will.
Viva Paraguay!
Zandor
Im brazilian and everybody here is very skeptic about the blackout being caused by thunders, since our power grid is quite reinforced do deal with lightnings. And It was a huuuge blackout. I live in the northeast coast and the problem happened in the south of southeast region, quite far, but somehow part of my city was affected.
To give you guys an idea, it’s like a problem in the electric grid of Florida affecting New York or Maine.
(part 2)
2) Are one of a even sadder sect of internet denizen. You are a Believer.
You generaly believe whatever you are told by anyone. especialy if it allows you to feel superior to others who may be in a stronger position than you or you feel have wronged you. These people mainly being cowards feel the need to puke up insulting or mindless drone garbadge on sites they find not heading there veiws.The only cure for said disease is a sudden case of reality unfortunatly Believers have a habit of commiting suicide when this cure is applied. Unfortunatly suicide is highly fatal.
(continued)
(Part 3)
The saddest one. Your insane. Due maybe to a extreme fear of ducks (orinthophobia.), or maybe Xenophobia or a fear of rabid bird monkyes coming to fling rocks at you.
There is no cure unfortunatly. A lifetime of exposure to conspiracy theories stupid people and even dumber ideas has driven the rational reality loving side of you into a small space where it whispers about its precious.
The only treatment.….quiznos chicken carbanara. mmm,mmm,mmm toasty.
Ok so there is a fourth one but it just involves a dork a bad sense of humor and a liking of making people go OMFG WTF WTF WTF!!!!!!!! tHATS NOT TRUE!!!!
after they read your nonsrnsical post. Because ive been on this site for years. And you post by far the most nonsensical dumba$$ post in the history of this site.
Any other questions?
as I understood it, the 2007 power outage in Brazil was initially pinned on hackers — but, when it became clear the cause of the black-out was, in fact something less (or more?) sinister: incompetence and neglect — the well worn and often very useful ‘blame it on an invisible adversary’ theme was withdrawn.
..is it too late to move the 2016 olympics to Chicago..? They have electricity and no gangs shooting down helicopters … (well, maybe occasionally south of 26th st)
btw .. what happened to the TECH in defenseTECH? a few years ago this was one of my favorite blogs — I think a more appropriate url would be http://www.defenserumor.org or perhaps http://www.camoandfirearms.com .. anyone have any suggestions on good websites w/ a focus on defense technology?
(I just checked, both of my above url suggestions are avail if you’d like to use them).
The reason that there are no Chicago gangs shooting down helicopters is that there no helicopters flying over the gang areas.
The helicopter pilots stay far away.
And they do that for a very good reason, i.e. they don’t want to get shot down.
Zandor…you obviously dont live in america. Helicopters fly over our cities all day long.
Medical helicopters, police helicopters, news helicopters.….
So im still trying to figure out which it is option A, B, or C. Option D just means your just very strange.
You are correct. I do not live in the USA.
I live about 230 miles to the west of the Itaipu hydroelectric facility.
Which contrary to what is said in this news article, is the largest hydro plant in the world, not the second largest.
The Chinese plant has more installed capacity, however it is not 100% used due to a shortage of water.
Fix the system or risk worldwide bad press for Olympic Games
Change the software codes?
Maybe Obama had it done, he was very upset about the Olympics not being in Chicago.…
Like they say… these power substations aren’t hard wired to the internet… so I’m a tad skeptical that anybody did anything.
Seems more like what John was saying. It’s a poor maintenance of a network, causing issues! It tends to be a problem in most developing countries, so it doesn’t surprise me. People just tend to try to cover it up, since these problems are probably filled with corruption behind the scenes.