Ride the Lightning

How Hard Would it Be for Hackers to Take Out a City?

August 20, 2015

Probably not all that hard. I expect to see the movie version shortly – and after that, who knows how long it will be before the real thing arrives?

As a Washington Post story noted yesterday, it could begin in the morning. The power goes out and cars jam the streets – the traffic lights are down. The subways are malfunctioning. Even if people could get to work, they have no Internet – what would they do?

Security experts say cities' increasing dependence on technology and the haphazard ways those systems sometimes connect could leave them vulnerable to someone looking to cause chaos. And we make it easy for them because local, state and federal government entities are not well prepared to fend off an attack.

Do you imagine that cities have a network diagram showing all the digital pathways between different entities? Do they have an overarching security architecture?

Last year, researchers found that traffic monitoring system used in dozens of U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., could allow a malicious hacker to falsify traffic data and manipulate stop lights. A few years ago, two Los Angeles traffic engineers pleaded guilty to hacking into the city's traffic system and slowing down traffic at key intersections in support of a labor protest.

Small potatoes of course. But the potential for damage has been noted by Hollywood before – I have a weakness for Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard because I do love that hacker s***. And there's probably nothing (computer-wise) in that movie that can't be done. According to CNN, even our own government thinks China and possibly other countries could shut down our power grid.

It could give a whole new meaning to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia."

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