And I thought only I noticed that

[Vern Humphrey]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/biden-s-horrible-colonial-pipeline-messaging-failure/ar-BB1gHgcS

Biden's horrible Colonial Pipeline messaging failure

Apparently, the Biden administration?s policy is to allow U.S. companies that provide vital services to be extorted by foreign hackers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-the-white-house-wont-define-pipeline-attack-as-terrorism/ar-BB1gLzhx?li=BBnb7Kz

Why the White House won't define pipeline attack as terrorism

We've heard calls in recent years for an ever-widening category of "terrorists" to encompass groups from the Jan. 6 rioters to antifa to the KKK. So it is surprising that the White House and the media have referred to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attackers simply as "hackers." The group, called "Darkside," is not just a collection of hackers - they're terrorists. And the only thing more concerning than the failure to label them correctly is the possible reason for not doing so.

[Roadkingtrax]

Imagine being upset about language now. Better late than never I guess.

[togor]

That's 3 posts now from Vernon about how Biden's government isn't exerting enough control over a pipeline company.

Weird, no matter how one slices it.

BTW, wasn't it Trump's government that got infiltrated in the Solarwinds hack?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_federal_government_data_breach

Nary a peep about accountability to Trump, or the dubious wisdom of turning to the government in the first place as the remedy. A private company should have all the incentive it needs to not get knocked offline.

[togor]

https://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Oil-and-Natural-Gas/Refining/EnSys-API-East-Coast-Refs-White-Paper.pdf

API study from 2012, how increasing reliance on the Colonial Pipeline increases supply risk. Refineries were shut down anyways for cost reduction.

[rayg]

Vern is right in his article he posted titled..Why the White House won't define pipeline attack as terrorism

It's terrorism that is being deluded by calling it a hack! If shutting down a large portion of the country by cyberattack isn't terrorism..what is?

Togor that is a real old (2012) article

[togor]

Ray,

Vern is wrong because the intent of the crime was to get money. Terrorism involves the use or threat of violence and no such violence was present. Now if someone feels their entire way of life is threatened every time the fuel gauge goes below halfway, that's a choice on their part.

The age of the article, which you did not even skim, is irrelevant. The point of the article is that the energy industry, in pursuit of cost reductions, is sacrificing resilience. Anyone dependent on Texas gas fields could tell you that!

I wonder if Vern wants State and Federal regulators to mandate more redundancy, excess capacities, in the energy sector. My guess is no, that he sees government's rightful role is to be blamed when something goes wrong--but only if Democrats are in charge.

You don't hear him excoriating ERCOT, for example after the winter freeze fiasco. Because Texas is run by Republicans.

[rayg]

Money or political.. shutting down a large portion of the country by cyberattack is terrorism!

[togor]

Money or political.. shutting down a large portion of the country by cyberattack is terrorism!

Colonial chose to shut down the pipeline themselves.

If anyone is guilty of terrorism, by your logic, it's the company. My son has a friend who's dad works at a company that got hit with ransomware. It's epidemic right now, and arguably nature's way of telling these companies to beef up their policies and lock down their IT a lot better than they have.

It's not terrorism. If you are going to redefine everything as terrorism then the world loses all meaning. There isn't a crime out there that doesn't leave a victim. That does not make every crime terrorism. As an ex-LEO you should know that.

I worked at a company in the 90's when the boxes were all windows 98, where every desktop rebooted from a canned image every single day. The individual user couldn't touch anything! Naturally engineering needed custom applications that the rest of the company did not, and after much back-and-forth, some allowances were made. But these kinds of policies are widespread still in large companies. But some get sloppy even in this day and age.

[rayg]

It's more then just hacking into some ones or a business site, as the action went beyond the normal inconvenience part as it caused the shutting down of the delivery of gas and which impacted a good portion of the country including it's defense...
I believe it fits the definition of terrorism!

[Vern Humphrey]

It's more then just hacking into some ones or a business site, as the action went beyond the normal inconvenience part as it caused the shutting down of the delivery of gas and which impacted a good portion of the country including it's defense...
I believe it fits the definition of terrorism!

The first duty of government is to protect the people from external attacks. This government has failed in its duty.

[Roadkingtrax]

The first duty of government is to protect the people from external attacks. This government has failed in its duty.

Internal attacks are all the rage (Jan 6th), not external attacks on private companies.

[RED]

All of this disagreement acknowledges the fact that nobody here owns a dictionary.

Terrorism (Oxford Languages) "The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians in pursuit of political gains."

No violence... No pursuit of political gains... it ain't terrorism

Here are a few political quotes from a great American thinker... Hannah was her name.

[it is] quite possible that the achievement of social, economic, and education equality for the Negro may sharpen the color problem in this country instead of assuaging it.

?[it burdened] children, black or white, with the working out of a problem which adults for generations have confessed themselves unable to solve?

"The conflict between a segregated, home and a desegregated school, between family prejudice and school demands, abolishes at one stroke both the teachers' and the parents' authority, replacing it with the rule of public opinion among children who have neither the ability nor the right to establish a public opinion of their on.

Hence it seems highly questionable whether it was wise to begin enforcement of civil rights in a domain where no basic human and no basic political right of their on.

[rayg]

I guess it's not terrorism according to the dictionary as it's not political for they are asking for a payment.... One way of getting around it being called terrorism ask for payment not to do it.....Lol

[S.A. Boggs]

When the electrical grid goes down how will slo joe spin this?
Sam

[lyman]

All of this disagreement acknowledges the fact that nobody here owns a dictionary.

Terrorism (Oxford Languages) "The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians in pursuit of political gains."

No violence... No pursuit of political gains... it ain't terrorism

Here are a few political quotes from a great American thinker... Hannah was her name.

Come on Man,

you know definitions in dictionaries are racist,