Iranian Cyberattacks Expose Alarming New Risks; Is Obama Paying Attention?

Cyberwars: Three recent news items are a stark reminder that the U.S. is under increasing global cyberattacks. And it should be a loud warning to the Obama administration that we're losing this war.

First we learned that in 2013 Iranian hackers had gained access to the control system of the Bowman Avenue Dam — which is less than 20 miles from New York City.

The hackers didn't take control of the dam, and no damage was done, but had they gained access to a larger dam, and managed to open its floodgates, the hackers could have caused massive amounts of destruction.

Then we learned that Juniper Networks had suffered a major breach, which involved installing back doors on computer equipment to track communications across private networks using Juniper's system. The company is a major provider of computer network equipment, including security products, to large companies and several government agencies — including the Defense Department, Justice, FBI and Treasury.

CNN reports that the FBI is now investigating whether hackers working for foreign governments were able to spy on the government for up to three years. Juniper has patched its systems, but the extent of the security breach isn't yet known. Nor do they know which state sponsored the attack.

And now we learn that hackers — believed to be from Iran — were able to break their way into networks running the U.S. power grid. The AP reports that security researcher Brian Wallace stumbled on a tranche of 19,000 stolen files that included user names and passwords and detailed engineering drawings of 71 networks and power stations operated by Calpine Corp. in 18 states.

Read the rest of this IBD editorial HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.