Free Energ​y Power​ Gener​ator & US Elect​rical​ Grid May Get Shutd​own Natio​nwide​ BLACK​OUT

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

FREE ENERGY Generator

http://www. soulsofdistortion. nl/free%20energy%202. html

http://www. rexresearch. com/christie/christie. htm



US Elect​rical​ Grid May Get Shutd​own Natio​nwide​ BLACK​OUT

Most likely this will be an INSIDE JOB to round up everyone




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The US Faces Serious Risks of Brownouts or Blackouts in 2009, Study Warns
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http://www. nextgenenergy. org/nextgen+blackout+study. aspx

Enviro Group Lawsuits, Cost Concerns, Climate Regulation Uncertainty Cited As Major Obstacles To Grid Improvements

Denver, CO (Oct. 1, 2008) -- A new study released this week highlights what experts have been saying for years: the U.S. faces significant risk of power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer that may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives.


The study, "Lights Out In 2009?" warns that the U.S. "faces potentially crippling electricity brownouts and blackouts beginning in the summer of 2009, which may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives.
"

"If particularly vulnerable regions, like the Western U.S., experience unusually hot temperatures for prolonged periods of time in 2009, the potential for local brownouts or blackouts is high, with significant risk that local disruptions could cascade into regional outages that could cost the economy tens of billions of dollars," the report warned.


U.S. baseload generation capacity reserve margins "have declined precipitously to 17 percent in 2007, from 30-40 percent in the early 1990s," according to the study. A 12-15 percent capacity reserve margin is the minimum required to ensure reliability and stability of the nation’s electricity system. Compounding this capacity deficiency, the projected U.S. demand in the next ten years is forecast to grow by 18 percent, far exceeding the projected eight percent growth in baseload generation capacity between now and 2016.


The study, which can be downloaded here, estimated that the U.S. will require about 120 gigawatts (GW) of new generation just to maintain a 15 percent reserve margin. That will require at least $300 billion in generation and transmission facility investments by 2016.


"The facts presented in this study should stimulate a call for action by policymakers everywhere. Our nation's electricity system is clearly in trouble and we need to take rapid steps as soon as possible to remedy the situation," said Bob Hanfling, Chairman of the non-profit NextGen Energy Council, which conducted the study. "This isn't the first study to come to these conclusions, and it won't be the last. We hope it illuminates current policy debates, from those on climate change to resource development to infrastructure build-out to national security. We also hope it will sound the alarm for every elected official, policymaker, business leader and citizen concerned about the future prosperity and security of our nation.
"

The study also identified the primary barriers to getting new power plants and transmission lines built. Chief among these is the "opposition of well-funded environmental groups that oppose and file lawsuits against virtually every new infrastructure project proposed.
"

Other obstacles include opposition to natural gas production, which is needed to fuel the growing reliance on natural-gas fired power plants; challenges associated with putting more intermittent renewable power sources on the grid; regulatory uncertainty associated with climate change policy development; reluctance by state regulators to approve rate increases related to the imposition of new environmental or climate-related regulation; and the relatively shorter-term approach to resource planning and acquisition that industry has been forced to adopt because of all of the above factors.


Among its other findings were these:

The U.S. will require more than 14,500 miles of new electricity transmission lines by 2016. Regions represented by the Florida Reliability Coordination Council (FRCC) and the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) may require less than 400 miles of new transmission lines, while the Southeast Reliability Council (SERC) may require nearly 2,300 miles. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) may require nearly 7,000 miles.


Substantial increases in wind turbine orders, and new wind capacity, has been slowed by a worldwide turbine shortage and local opposition to wind projects. Since wind generation is expected to grow substantially throughout the U.S., the integration of intermittent resources into the bulk power system is becoming increasingly complex and difficult.


While renewable energy proponents, and some elected officials, are saying that the U.S. needs to only add renewable power facilities such as wind farms, the annual capacity factor of wind generators is typically about 25 - 35 percent. However, the probability that wind generators are available at their rated value during annual peak periods is only between 5 - 20 percent and varies greatly from year to year and region to region. Wind cannot be considered a reliable baseload capacity resource.


Rapidly increasing demand for steel and copper has caused spot scarcity of the resources required to manufacture key electrical components, and this commodity demand has increased the theft of critical system components. Manufacturers have attempted to eliminate excess inventories and capacity to increase productivity of their assets, but they are reluctant to add more capacity until they can be certain about future industry investments.

The study also presented a survey of political developments and trends that amount to "structural political barriers being erected to system reliability.
" It pointed to the fact that "environmental activist groups" are now:

Suing to block the construction of virtually every single baseload coal-fired power plant, in spite of advanced environmental technologies these plants would deploy.


Gearing up to block construction of any baseload nuclear power plants across the West.


Suing or protesting virtually every proposed lease on public lands in the Rocky Mountains for natural gas drilling.


Working to slow or stop the completion of the two main multi-year, stakeholder-based transmission corridor processes that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress approved as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.


Pushing for additional endangered species designations, which will make siting and construction of both power plants and transmission lines difficult.


Pressuring government leaders to limit access by larger, baseload technologies to the region's high-voltage transmission grid and, instead proposing to artificially favor non-baseload, intermittent power facilities that will (at some point) further stress the reliability of the entire Western grid.




********************************
The Power Failure From Hell
********************************
By Ted Twietmeyer
2-26-8
http://www. rense. com/general80/pwrff. htm

There you are, sitting fat and happy watching your favorite ball game It's the bottom of the ninth when WHAMO! A blackout hits and off goes everything powered by AC The first thing you do instinctively is to look outside for bad weather But as the sun sets, it's quite clear that it's still the same blue sky you saw all day today We'll just wait a while and it the power will come back on It always does

You call your friend on the other side of town using your cell phone. His power is out too.
But you are alerted that your battery is running low, and decide to hang up to conserve it You ask your family where the flashlight is and put it to work as it begins to get dark A quick call to the power company yields a soft, melodic voice telling you "Crews are working on the problem No estimated time of repair is given Thank you for your patience" Your past experience tells you to forbid anyone to open the fridge, because you want it to retain all the cold you can and keep food in the freezer from melting

It's getting near midnight and still there is no power. Six hours have passed since it went off. When you try your friend across town, your cell phone shows no signal.
That's because the mandatory four hours of backup for the cell tower has long expired You toss your cell phone down in disgust Groping around with your flashlight you help your family get to bed Computers, phones and everything AC powered just isn't working Everyone might as well go to bed, and so everyone does just that Things will be better in the morning

In the morning, you unplug the wireless phone from the wall and plug in your old 70's old faithful telephone from the closet that doesn't need power to work When you pick it up, there still isn't any dial tone Then it hits you ­ you and your family are cut off from the world! Out to your vehicle you wander half-dressed, thinking about the food in the fridge starting to melt away into slop Turning on the car radio yields something you never, ever thought you'd ever hear ­"There was an attack or something happened to the power grid, it's still unclear Power will not be restored for at least several MONTHS Stay tuned for more on this emergency radio station for as long as we can still transmit"

Panic starts to set in Missing last night's ball game suddenly becomes totally irrelevant to you and your family Your wife hears the broadcast and instinctively looks to you for answers Her tough, modern-independent-woman persona has suddenly vanished and now she says, "Honey, I'm scared to death - what are we going to do?" The children begin to cry because they too, know this is all bad

You quickly assess the situation. Fuel is needed to run the generator which you bought right after the last power failure.
But five gallons of gas only runs it about 12 hours, so you decide to head up to the gas station with all the empty containers you have At least you'll be able to bring home enough fuel to run it for a couple days You begin to drive around, only to find gas stations are closed everywhere Then you find one, which is apparently still open by the line of cars you see a half-mile long You look down at your gas gauge as you get in line ­ you've got a half tank of gas There's no way to tell your wife where you are and that you won't be home for hours

As you sit in that painful line waiting for your turn, you find that at least you have enough cash to fill the cans and jugs you brought along. While you're waiting, you start seeing National Guard vehicles going by and other vehicles with Canadian flags. "What are they doing here?" you ask yourself.
And then there are the super-mad people, who waited in line only to find out they cannot use their bank cards to buy gasoline because the banking networks are down These people storm off like angry hornets Finally, two hours later it's your turn to fill up everything you have including your car And you realize the price has been jacked up to scalp you by more than a dollar a gallon This simple fuel stop has cost you more than $10000 - in fact all the cash you had except for the fifty cents left

Driving back home you turn up the radio again.
Why are they talking about condition red? What's that all about? Two hours left to get off the streets? Here and there on major highways you see soldiers starting to set up what look like road blocks, with nearby areas surrounded by Concertina wire These look like they are for detaining people Why would they be doing this? "Do they know something I don't?" you ask yourself You spot a big grocery store, but the sign says "Closed ­ sold out" And there's an army vehicle nearby with two men openly brandishing machine guns and red Maple-leaf flags on their arms, staring right at you Guess it's time to head home

As you pull into your driveway you see military Hum-Vs driving around your neighborhood warning everyone that "Martial law has been declared and you are to stay inside your home - or you will be arrested or shot on sight" And they aren't American either! Oh God, they just MIGHT shoot if I go out again! Now it's REALLY getting scary Your mind races with questions ­ "What about my wife's medications she must take every day to prevent stroke, and my son's Asthma medicine? They can die without these medicines! What about food?"

Suddenly, you feel a terror like you never felt before How could this happen in America of all places?

Unfortunately, the above scenario is just the beginning of what will happen No gasoline can be pumped out of storage tanks at gas stations without power, no bank cards will work anymore and very few gas stations have backup generators Public water will stop working, as generators for the water supply plants, pumping stations and wells run out of fuel

Los Angeles alone has several giant one thousand horsepower pumps that pump water from the Colorado River over a mountain to LA This IS their main water supply, and these pumps require so much power to run the facility that it has its own high voltage substation connected to cross-country high tension lines Food and fuel cannot be delivered to gas stations anywhere because martial law will prohibit the truckers from driving If a fire breaks out, an entire city or neighborhood can burn to the ground because there will no way to put out the fire without water from the public water supply

Natural gas pipelines use compressors along their routes, which are actually fueled by the very natural gas they are pumping.
These require no AC power to pump natural gas However, loss of AC power will cause instrumentation to shut down as a needed safety measure, and this could shut down the entire gas pipeline High pressures are involved, and without instrumentation, metering and computers pipeline operators would be running blind which is too dangerous No more natural gas for cooking, hot water or heating And the operators will immediately return home to their families After all, what do they have to gain by staying at their jobs? There will not be any further paychecks
Water treatment plants require massive pumps to filter and pressurize water mains When AC power fails so will the water supply fail, when generators run out of diesel fuel Water company workers will also head straight home to be with their families when condition red takes place rather than have to live for years at a water treatment plant, eventually starving to death

Sewer systems today all require massive pumps to process sewage, grind up solids, power rakes that constantly skim and scrape tanks to clear debris and filter the effluent. Gravity filtered sewage treatment plants are a thing of the past. Many neighborhoods in cities across America have pumping stations installed deep below street level.
These pumps grind up and pump sewage under pressure up to a sewer line This is required because the "lay of the land" puts people's basements below the level of the gravity-powered main sewer line When these pumps go down from lack of power, entire neighborhoods will have toilets back up Sinks, showers, bathtubs etc will no longer work, and will become serious health hazards It was sewage material carried by rats that started the Plague of Europe Cholera is yet another serious hazard, and so is Staphylococcus among others

Though newer homes have sewer and water main check valves, there is no guaranty they will always work properly when needed Imagine sewage backing up into your home, and you can't even go outside to get away from it without being shot or arrested And even worse, there won't be any running water available to flush the filth out of your home You'll either have to live with it - along with the flies and disease that go with it, or go outside and be arrested or shot

Now, you think this is as bad as it gets? No it isn't Without food, tens or even hundreds of millions of people will literally starve to death Some will resort to cannibalism, as the pain of hunger is beyond comprehension to ordinary people This is what happened when a group of people in a plane crashed high in the Andes mountains many years ago - they survived by resorting to cannibalism That is, if you don't literally die of thirst before hand

Though the water no longer flows from the tap in an extended power failure and toilets no longer can flush, human beings will continue to create excrement of two kinds, as well material from women who menstruate All this waste must be put somewhere

Is this the end of it? No, because winter will come sooner or later That brings on an entire new set of problems if you live in cold areas of America, including the added risk of hypothermia and pneumonia And through all this you remember some of the last words you heard on your car radio in the garage before it finally stopped working as the result of a dead car battery and no gasoline "Those who can't deal with the stress are to go out to the curb, lay face down with their hands over their head and wait for a patrol to pick them up They will be taken to a government camp where their needs will be taken care of"

Other final words informed you that "All bank funds and stocks have been confiscated during martial law to pay for the tremendous costs the government incurred enforcing martial law This was necessary because revenue from all forms of taxes had ceased during martial law" You suddenly realize that you're penniless and without a job

But then, what good would your money do you? Without the banking network operational you will have no way to access that money anyway And even if you had all that cash with you now, what could you buy with it and where would you buy it? Finally you understand the horror ­ you and your family are prisoners in your own home

The above scenario is an attempt to detail the implications of simply losing AC power in America Most likely all these same horrors would happen anywhere else in the world this happens, too Just as the people of Iraq what it's like without power
Could this be what the future holds under our "New Freedom?" Are we to sit around and simply wait for this nightmare-from-hell scenario to unfold? I'll let the reader fill in the blanks here

Ted Twietmeyer
[e-mail]




Not even a single nuclear weapon launched - If US electrical grid gets shut down by EMP weaponry, within 30 days half of US population will begin to perish from starvation

China and Russia helping the NWO FEMA Martial Law scenario? Since they are at the helm of the UN security council which wants to dismantle USA anyway? Something to ponder when and if shit hits the fan




Electromagnetic Pulse affected area according to blast altitude


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The weapons of World War III
It will 'be fought in the electromagnetic spectrum'
******************************************************

WorldNetDaily
July 08, 2008
11:20 pm Eastern

http://www. worldnetdaily. com/index. php?fa=PAGE. view&pageId=...

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.


Did the Chinese military cause the largest blackout in the history of North America?

That is the assertion of Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, who says U.S. intelligence officials confirmed to him the People's Liberation Army gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern U.S. in 2003, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.


Some 50 million people were affected by the 9,300-square-mile blackout that hit parts of New York, Canada, Michigan and Ohio.


The official explanation for the power outage was that overgrown trees came into contact with strained high-voltage lines in Ohio. But the story of this possible skirmish in the "electromagnetic spectrum" is widely whispered about in defense and intelligence circles. It is referred to by some as the first battle of World War III – a conflict to be fought asymmetrically in cyberspace and with weapons that might seem like science fiction.


The Moscow newspaper Zavtra reported only a week ago that Russia has developed "special powerful electromagnetic impulse generators that may be used in design of new type radars and as a basis of electromagnetic weapons that will render enemy electronics inoperable.
"

"The U.S. Army is convinced meanwhile that the Russians have already designed 'kinetic weapons' and 'directed energy weapons' (apparently lasers) for ASAT warfare," the article continued. "In any event, the Americans suspect that the recent episode with the Chinese laser that damaged an American spysat became possible precisely because Moscow had made this technology available to China.
"

The superweapons being developed for the next global conflict began coming into sharper focus last winter when China destroyed one of its own aging, low-Earth-orbit weather satellites while it was circling at an altitude of 500 miles, using a ground-based, direct ascent anti-satellite weapon.


This year, the U.S., using its sea-based Aegis missile defense system, shot down a disabled American intelligence satellite at 100 or so miles altitude as it tumbled uncontrollably toward the planet.


The Defense Department says China is developing non-kinetic means of attacking satellites, such as jamming and blinding, and using lasers, microwave, particle beam and electromagnetic pulse weapons.


Cyber-warfare, one of the proven strengths of the Chinese military, can also be used as an anti-satellite capability. In congressional testimony this year, the director of national intelligence stated, "Counter-command, control and sensor systems, to include communications satellite jammers and ASAT weapons, are among Beijing's highest military priorities.
"

Bennett, meanwhile, told the National Journal he believes Chinese cyber-hackers were also responsible for another U.S. blackout last February in Florida – one that affected 3 million customers.


Bennett told the National Journal he decided to speak publicly about the incidents to point out that security for the nation's critical electronic infrastructures is weak and to emphasize that government and company officials haven't sufficiently acknowledged these vulnerabilities.


Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.


***********************************************************************************
'Invisible Wars' of the Future: E-Bombs, Laser Guns and Acoustic Weapons
***********************************************************************************

Global Research
July 6, 2008

This important article on new weapons systems was originally publisehd in Russian in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, translated by Guerman Grachev for Pravda Russia News

Speaking at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Relations on September 1st, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “An arms race is entering its new stage.
There is a threat of new weaponry looming on the horizon” What exactly did he mean by saying that?

From hypothesis to reality

The pace of continuous progress made by science and technology keeps growing faster. Scientists and military analysts point out the emergence of fundamentally new types of weapons including those of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the new future.
In the late 1990s, the then Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev sounded a note of warning as he spoke about “the use of new physical principles for building weaponry with new applications in both strategic and tactical levels, is yet another qualitative leap in the change and development of ways and methods of warfare”

Read The Rest HERE



Long March 3A rocket

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US cites growing China space and cyber threat
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Reuters
Wed May 21, 2008

http://uk. reuters. com/article/internetNews/idUKN2029195220080521








Power outage hits Washington, White House - Friday June 13th 2008 -...

China speeds pace of military buildup - Washington Times March 3, 2008

Chinese suspected in Capitol hacking cases - LA Times June 12, 2008


EMP weaponry - Discovery Future Weapons pt 1


EMP pt 2

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China EMP Arms (Electromagnetic Pulse Weaponry
*********************************************************

Washington Times
Thursday, June 26, 2008

http://www. washtimes. com/news/2008/jun/26/inside-the-ring-61437820/

China's significant military buildup includes strategic weapons designed to counter US military advantages, including electric pulse weapons, a senior Pentagon official told Congress Wednesday

James J.
Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs also said during House testimony that China's arms buildup is increasing the danger of a future conflict over Taiwan

Mr.
Shinn warned that one troubling aspect of the large-scale buildup is what he termed a "deliberate and well-thought-through Chinese strategy to invest in asymmetric warfare - cyber-warfare, counterspace capability, a very sophisticated ballistic and cruise missile program and, of course, undersea warfare"

He disclosed that China's military is working on exotic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons that can devastate electronic systems using a burst of energy similar to that produced by a nuclear blast

Chinese EMP weaponry "is one of several examples of asymmetric warfare that we need to deal with," Mr.
Shinn told the House Armed Services Committee

Read The Rest Here

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China denies hacking congressional computers
*****************************************************

Lacks the necessary technology, claims China's Foreign Ministry

June 12, 2008 (Computerworld)

http://www. computerworld. com/action/article. do?command=viewArtic...

China on Thursday denied charges by two UScongressmen that it had hacked their offices' computers, claiming that it doesn't have technology capable of launching such attacks

"Is there any evidence? Do we have such advanced technology? Even I don't believe it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in today's regularly scheduled news conference, according to the Associated Press Translations of the Foreign Ministry's Chinese-language transcript confirmed the AP account

Read The Rest HERE

China EMP weapons can compromise US nuclear first strike


The great US-Canada northeast blackout Aug 2003


CNN - 2003 New York Blackout


US authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M Gutierrez - Associated Press May 29, 2008


CNN investigates Chinese hackers who hacked into Pentagon - March 8, 2008


Chinese Military Hacks Pentagon's computer system - Fox Sept 2007


CNN - HACKING THE PENTAGON: IS CHINA BEHIND THIS CYBERATTACK?
Sep 2007

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China’s Cyber-Militia
***********************

Chinese hackers pose a clear and present danger to USgovernment and private-sector computer networks and may be responsible for two major US power blackouts

National Journal Magazine
by Shane Harris
Sat May 31, 2008

Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of UScompanies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to US government officials and computer-security experts

One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said that USintelligence officials have told him that the PLA in 2003 gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern United States.
The intelligence officials said that forensic analysis had confirmed the source, Bennett said “They said that, with confidence, it had been traced back to the PLA” These officials believe that the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected

Officially, the blackout was attributed to a variety of factors, none of which involved foreign intervention. Investigators blamed “overgrown trees” that came into contact with strained high-voltage lines near facilities in Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Corp.
More than 100 power plants were shut down during the cascading failure A computer virus, then in wide circulation, disrupted the communications lines that utility companies use to manage the power grid, and this exacerbated the problem The blackout prompted President Bush to address the nation the day it happened Power was mostly restored within 24 hours

There has never been an official USgovernment assertion of Chinese involvement in the outage, but intelligence and other government officials contacted for this story did not explicitly rule out a Chinese role One security analyst in the private sector with close ties to the intelligence community said that some senior intelligence officials believe that China played a role in the 2003 blackout that is still not fully understood

Bennett, whose former trade association includes some of the nation’s largest computer-security companies and who has testified before Congress on the vulnerability of information networks, also said that a blackout in February, which affected 3 million customers in South Florida, was precipitated by a cyber-hacker That outage cut off electricity along Florida’s east coast, from Daytona Beach to Monroe County, and affected eight power-generating stations Bennett said that the chief executive officer of a security firm that belonged to Bennett’s trade group told him that federal officials had hired the CEO’s company to investigate the blackout for evidence of a network intrusion, and to “reverse engineer” the incident to see if China had played a role

Bennett, who now works as a private consultant, said he decided to speak publicly about these incidents to point out that security for the nation’s critical electronic infrastructures remains intolerably weak and to emphasize that government and company officials haven’t sufficiently acknowledged these vulnerabilities

The Florida Blackout

A second information-security expert independently corroborated Bennett’s account of the Florida blackout.
According to this individual, who cited sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, a Chinese PLA hacker attempting to map Florida Power & Light’s computer infrastructure apparently made a mistake “The hacker was probably supposed to be mapping the system for his bosses and just got carried away and had a ‘what happens if I pull on this’ moment” The hacker triggered a cascade effect, shutting down large portions of the Florida power grid, the security expert said “I suspect, as the system went down, the PLA hacker said something like, ‘Oops, my bad,’ in Chinese”

The power company has blamed “human error” for the incident, specifically an engineer who improperly disabled safety backups while working on a faulty switch. But federal officials are still investigating the matter and have not issued a final report, a spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said.
The industry source, who conducts security research for government and corporate clients, said that hackers in China have devoted considerable time and resources to mapping the technology infrastructure of other UScompanies That assertion has been backed up by the current vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said last year that Chinese sources are probing US government and commercial networks

Asked whether Washington knew of hacker involvement in the two blackouts, Joel Brenner, the government’s senior counterintelligence official, told National Journal, “I can’t comment on that” But he added, “It’s certainly possible that sort of thing could happen The kinds of network exploitation one does to explore a network and map it and learn one’s way around it has to be done whether you are going to … steal information, bring [the network] down, or corrupt it… The possible consequences of this behavior are profound”

Brenner, who works for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, looks for vulnerabilities in the government’s information networks. He pointed to China as a source of attacks against USinterests.
“Some [attacks], we have high confidence, are coming from government-sponsored sites,” Brenner said “The Chinese operate both through government agencies, as we do, but they also operate through sponsoring other organizations that are engaging in this kind of international hacking, whether or not under specific direction It’s a kind of cyber-militia… It’s coming in volumes that are just staggering”

The Central Intelligence Agency’s chief cyber-security officer, Tom Donahue, said that hackers had breached the computer systems of utility companies outside the United States and that they had even demanded ransom Donahue spoke at a January gathering in New Orleans of security executives from government agencies and some of the nation’s largest utility and energy companies He said he suspected that some of the hackers had inside knowledge of the utility systems and that in at least one case, an intrusion caused a power outage that affected multiple cities The CIA didn’t know who launched the attacks or why, Donahue said, “but all involved intrusions through the Internet”

Donahue’s public remarks, which were unprecedented at the time, prompted questions about whether power plants in the United States had been hacked Many computer-security experts, including Bennett, believe that his admission about foreign incidents was intended to warn American companies that if intrusions hadn’t already happened stateside, they certainly could A CIA spokesman at the time said that Donahue’s comments were “designed to highlight to the audience the challenges posed by potential cyber intrusions” The CIA declined National Journal’s request to interview Donahue

Cyber-Espionage

In addition to disruptive attacks on networks, officials are worried about the Chinese using long-established computer-hacking techniques to steal sensitive information from government agencies and US corporations

Brenner, the UScounterintelligence chief, said he knows of “a large American company” whose strategic information was obtained by its Chinese counterparts in advance of a business negotiation As Brenner recounted the story, “The delegation gets to China and realizes, ‘These guys on the other side of the table know every bottom line on every significant negotiating point’ They had to have got this by hacking into [the company’s] systems”

Bennett told a similar story about a large, well-known American company (Both he and Brenner declined to provide the names of the companies) According to Bennett, the Chinese based their starting points for negotiation on the Americans’ end points

Two sources also alleged that the hacking extends to high-level administration officials

During a trip to Beijing in December 2007, spyware programs designed to clandestinely remove information from personal computers and other electronic equipment were discovered on devices used by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and possibly other members of a UStrade delegation, according to a computer-security expert with firsthand knowledge of the spyware used. Gutierrez was in China with the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, a high-level delegation that includes the UStrade representative and that meets with Chinese officials to discuss such matters as intellectual-property rights, market access, and consumer product safety.
According to the computer-security expert, the spyware programs were designed to open communications channels to an outside system, and to download the contents of the infected devices at regular intervals The source said that the computer codes were identical to those found in the laptop computers and other devices of several senior executives of UScorporations who also had their electronics “slurped” while on business in China The source said he believes, based on conversations with USofficials, that the Gutierrez compromise was a source of considerable concern in the Bush administration Another source with knowledge of the incident corroborated the computer-security expert’s account

National Journal had a series of conversations with Rich Mills, a Commerce Department spokesman Asked whether spyware or other malicious software code was found on any electronic devices used by Gutierrez or people traveling with him in China in December 2007, Mills said he “could not confirm or deny” the computer-security expert’s allegations “I cannot comment on specific [information-technology] issues, but the Department of Commerce is actively working to safeguard sensitive information” Mills added that the source had provided some inaccurate information, but he did not address the veracity of the source’s claim that the delegation was electronically compromised

“China is indeed a counterintelligence threat, and specifically a cyber-counterintelligence threat,” said Brenner, who served for four years as inspector general of the National Security Agency, the intelligence organization that electronically steals other countries’ secrets Brenner said that the American company’s experience “is an example of how hard the Chinese will work at this, and how much more seriously the American corporate sector has to take the information-security issue” He called economic espionage a national security risk and said that it makes little difference to a foreign power whether it steals sensitive information from a government-operated computer or from one owned by a contractor “If you travel abroad and are the director of research or the chief executive of a large company, you’re a target,” he said

“Cyber-networks are the new frontier of counterintelligence,” Brenner emphasized “If you can steal information or disrupt an organization by attacking its networks remotely, why go to the trouble of running a spy?”

Stephen Spoonamore, CEO of Cybrinth, a cyber-security firm that works for government and corporate clients, said that Chinese hackers attempt to map the IT networks of his clients on a daily basis He said that executives from three Fortune 500 companies, all clients, had document-stealing code planted in their computers while traveling in China, the same fate that befell Gutierrez

Spoonamore challenged USofficials to be more forthcoming about the breaches that have occurred on their systems. “By not talking openly about this, they are making a truly dangerous national security problem worse,” Spoonamore said. “Secrecy in this matter benefits no one.
Our nation’s intellectual capital, industrial secrets, and economic security are under daily and withering attack The oceans that surround us are no protection from sophisticated hackers, working at the speed of light on behalf of nation-states and mafias We must cease denying the scope, scale, and risks of the issue I, and a growing number of my peers believe our nation is in grave and growing danger” (continued below)


2003 New York - Canada North East blackout

A Growing Threat

Brenner said that Chinese hackers are “very good and getting better all the time… What makes the Chinese stand out is the pervasive and relentless nature of the attacks that are coming from China”

The issue has caught Congress’s attention. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who chairs the Homeland Security panel’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology, said that his staff has examined a range of hacker networks, from criminal syndicates to nationally supported groups.
“China has been a primary concern,” he said The deepest penetrations into US systems have been traced back to sources within China, Langevin noted

(At a hearing last week, Langevin said that the private sector, which owns the vast majority of USinformation networks, including those that operate power plants, dams, and other critical infrastructure, had taken a “halfhearted approach” to improving security He cited a new report by the Government Accountability Office, which found that the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest power generator, “has not fully implemented appropriate security practices to secure the control systems and networks used to operate its critical infrastructures” Langevin said that the TVA “risks a disruption of its operations as the result of a cyber-incident, which could impact its customers,” and he expressed “little confidence that industry is taking the appropriate actions”)

The Chinese make little distinction between hackers who work for the government and those who undertake cyber-adventures on its behalf.
“There’s a huge pool of Chinese individuals, students, academics, unemployed, whatever it may be, who are, at minimum, not discouraged from trying this out,” said Rodger Baker, a senior China analyst for Stratfor, a private intelligence firm So-called patriotic-hacker groups have launched attacks from inside China, usually aimed at people they think have offended the country or pose a threat to its strategic interests At a minimum the Chinese government has done little to shut down these groups, which are typically composed of technologically skilled and highly nationalistic young men Officially, Chinese military and diplomatic officials say they have no policy of attacking other governments’ systems.