Industrial Espionage & Violence

Are we our own worst enemy? Now of course the Russians and “Little Man” are trying to break into our “Critical” industrial complex, as a one-up should WWIII commence on schedule. I am sure that “scheduled event” is highlighted in the Rex Tillerson’s Fucking Moron’s escaparade plan. Look, we are closer to that “III” era error more than ever today, as with all the world “conflicts” it eventually finds WAR as an ultimatum answer, a final deterrent for “battles” that have been brewing way too long - like in Syria to Afghanistan, Iraq...in America for the past 420-days. In WAR we need jet fuel, so the enemy wants to shut-down our refineries. And to make that high-octane gasoline we need oil, so this enemy will shut-down our cross-country feedstock pipelines. And that same nitro is used to generate electricity, so our turbines will go to idle and no more “hear the mighty engines roar” - as “military” use gets a priority during conflicts. OK, the Moron will have to get authorization from Congress, I mean Putin to engage. And last but not least this attack upon the American Industrial Revolution, short-circuit the “Grid” so we cannot flush our toilets or charge our cell phones and that would be “Total Destruction”, especially if “Twitter” went silent. IMAGINE if the Moron…talk about withdrawals. But attacking the industrialists, it is all about WAR time advantages such “hacking” which finds reason this “meddling” by an enemy of the people, this selfish and careless interest from outsiders - I am sure by now you get the point why “Portnoy” likes his finger on our buttons. While the Moron seems more interested in keeping his fingers on “Big Phony Tits”. Yes, we are at a major disadvantage and democracy weakened with a Moron at the helm when noble “Patriotic” statesmen are today calling him out, as a “disgraced demagogue serious threat to national security”. I feel a draft, praytell when does the enemy strike its coming. And to reiterate from my previous writings on this subject matter I am not an expert, this “CyberWAR” started back in 2005, and we have our “good name” scribbled all over some of those “hack attacks”, which means revenge. Take for instance the StuxNET attack in Iran, at the Natanz nuclear plant wherein that “hack” caused uranium-enrichment equipment to self-destruct. BROVO! But I am one that holds a strong belief that it ain’t just our foe-foes interested in this industrialized violence, as competition breeds this fantasy to wreak havoc another’s bread & butter. My first encounter with “Industrial Espionage with Violence” unhinged for the purpose of “monetary” destruction came up in Alaska, at a remote “near shore off shore” oil development facility. One night, this is back in 2009, a SCADA control supervisory system glitch caused all the production wells on the remote island to shut-down and since this was a fully-automated site, it was not like we could just open it all back up. There were no actual buttons to press that said “Go”. And all the HMI screens were like a “Doomsday Clock”. It was stuck and the “Black Gold Goop” stuck downhole, which means the cash-register was on “TILT”! See, by spending money up-front for “fully automated”, it saves in the short term because it cuts out the middle man - yes it saves on labor costs. But when things break, if un-trained operation personnel cannot over-ride the “stuck bit” than time to sit around with the finger up the nose. So proved once again the theory “a penny saved is a penny earned” until “hackers” get restless then the tune changes to “penny-wise and pound foolish”. Now what would be considered a “normal event” shut-down in an industrial setting, like say during a detector seeing a flame from a fire, well when this event snuck in and caused oil production for this Podunk oil producer competing against the EXXONs and British Petroleum giants to come to an abrupt halt, there could have been an ulterior motive. It was an attack on this soil by our own, as this was the first “Independent” to brave the frigid climate of Alaska for the “Black Gold”. Big Oil is very territorial in Alaska. And even an event that can unexpectedly shut-down the production for a few hours, it chokes off the revenue stream and that spells bad business to the investors such an outage, which in this case lasted many hours. And without production it means no natural gas it means no electricity it means no toilet flushing! Besides that, it is always cold up North. And because we could not get the heat back on, management was poised to abandon the site by taking all workers to safety. Had that come to be, things could get ugly as the “under-water” pipelines would freeze, break apart and a “Closed for Business” sign placed at the front door for good. The funny thing about this attack, it was on the same type of hardware that was used in Iran, so it was a StuxNET attack. See, that “malicious code” snuck away from its intended keeper and is today - just google and you can find it. So, it was not a mystery as this “hack” was very suspicious and at the time there existed many lawsuits between the “Big Oil Man” and the “Little Oil Man” trying to get in on the action. This “hack” was homegrown for a horrifying reason, called “Greed”. All this hoopla over our enemy engaging…look around as the enemy may be someone you know, maybe a coworker on the take! What caused this shutdown, found in the aftermath investigation? It was traced to a XXX Porn CD shoved into the control system, called Operation Desert Stormy! That was a good excuse, as nobody wanted to admit that up in the middle of nowhere a “hack” occurred on a critical component of the infrastructure. It was like when the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline was completed and the “Union Halls” went up for sale, a breath of fresh air relief for the “Maggie’s Farm” bosses. And when talk of a “Union” came to Valdez after a visit from Pete Seeger, boy did the you know what hit the fan. Somebody with ties to “Big Oil” was hired to kill the organizers, people targeted while driving through Thompson’s Pass - by controlled avalanches! My break lines were cut! A different kind of “Hack-job”. OK first and foremost, the “Untold Story” of the greatest “Industrial Espionage with Violence” success of all times. It happened on March 24th, 1989 when the EXXON Valdez oil tanker was commanded to crash into Bligh Reef - the worst environmental disaster of our times. Yes, that was a planned attack by a disgruntled oil broker and orchestrated by a “hack” that acted like a “Trojan” and compromised the navigator - on autopilot while the crew shrugged off a hangover. I was acquainted with the “Trio” that was involved, two are deceased so I can tell 2/3rds the “Real Story” with confidence as I won’t be attacked from the grave. If you don’t believe me, how did EXXON make money on this wreck? In fact, when I attended a “share-holder” meeting the following year, one guy joked “more tanker wrecks” because of how this incident DID NOT affect the bottom-line! Now I get around, so maybe just in the right place at the right time finds evidence of “missing links” what is really behind this “CyberWAR scare. I was then witness to another “hack”, this time at a critical power plant at a military base in interior Alaska. One night, all the damn steam boilers went into hibernation and soon all the turbine generators went to lights out status. Now fortunate for the base housing where troops were trying to get a good night’s sleep with heat, there existed an emergency electrical tie-line from the power-plant of a “Competitor” that was pissed because he wanted to sell his electricity to Uncle Sam, as it fetches a premium. This was another case of “Bullying” and just another “homegrown” hack based on the “money”! See, once this “Hack” found success and the main power source was now considered “unreliable” by the Military Brass Balls, the out-fit behind the “hack” received a contract. Yes, as a “Backup” that didn’t have to provide anything but just incase be prepared, so received loot for nothing! It is all about the money. And wherein I see the worst of the worse this destructive “Homegrown” industrial terrorism? Just follow those overhead power lines to what was once a vacant lot of unsustainable outgrown agricultural lands or an overflowing Devin Nunes cow pie corral - repurposed and now covered with solar panels - yes vulnerability in the “Solar” sector. No not homeowner rooftop energy from the Sun God Ra, but in the “Utility” sector, solar plants that extend as far as the eye can see, like in Texas and southern California that generates MEGIGAWATTS. The competition at the point of intersection injection with “Renewables verses Conventional”, like with fossil fuel in contention with the sun, it is at WAR! They don’t like each-other’s electrons for a reason, as there exists a $money$ exchange, a transfer of wealth with this “Renewables” interest. So it is a new industry ripe for “hacking” opportunities, by the competition. Look, it has nothing to do with going “Green”, it is growing for that ROI criteria. Solar is great, but it is “Wall Street” investors that have put up the Fabulous Moolah to build these monstrous tax shelters, for several reasons. There exists still, even under the Moron’s give-it-all-away to Putin plan, lucrative “Tax Credit” incentives to make money and at the same time a very favorable “regulator” climate that forces Edison to buy more expensive electricity, so we can flush our toilets before it runneth over. I was down at a site in the “Lone Star” up Upton County - the paint was still fresh on the solar arrays and “hackers” were busy at it, “hacking” into the control system. Look, this is out in the middle of a cow pasture, there ain’t no Russian spy around here! This is TEXAS, they can smell a renegade Rusky before a skunk. See, even though the solar sector is but a small percentage of the power source on our so-called “Grid”, because “solar” as a source is in direct conflict with an “inertia type” infrastructure - wherein rotating electrical generators powered from gas or steam turbines turn and turn in synchronization - it is very easy to cause havoc in a remote section and that will propagate a disturbance to another source and a clash of the Titans will occur - the domino effect can then cause a major “Black-Out” and due the fact the “Grid” in itself is overbooked - it can have adverse effects. And that is happening today, to prove a point between the “Competitors” even though this solar started out with good intent until it became an “Investors” hoodwinking opportunity. I have commissioned solar sites, and we are asked by the clients to tune the control system to cheat the “Grid”, to “buck” the momentum of inertia so more solar is injected - cha ching cha chingaling! Then the “Grid” operator fights back. It’s WAR! Look, it is so easy to sneak into our industrial control systems and even easier to cause destruction once in that “Control Booth”. Due the complexity of the industrial complex, the overall expanse and so many variants of components without any regulation because we live in a “free society” for commerce, there is but one solution. Instead of this fanaticism to automate everything, hire and train qualified operators that can also smell out a Russian rat over a skunk and take appropriate action - by taking that “hackers hatchet” away and manually operate the process when push comes to shove. But here is my take on it all. This “CyberWAR” is here to stay, it is like a game and because it has a $dollar$ sign attached, this competition to cause havoc is coming at US from both directions. And the most vulnerable of our critical infrastructure, it is the “Stock Market” as that is the pipeline of wealth for investors and to hack that, all it takes is an investor with a name like Sergey and a “buy & sell” attitude with the intent to see a “crash”, It can be manipulated - like we see how the gripper took hold on January 26^th - to cause the markets to be very unstable and then the “Domino Effect” causes the “Grid” guys to start fighting the solar guys and we could find ourselves in the dark and “Twitter” on “TILT”. So in ending, there are two sources of this “Industrial Espionage and Violence” sensation, our foreign enemy and maybe that neighbor that works for the competition. Solution for the foreigners, there is none. For that neighbor, it means spending money to hire more operators and that is something that was killed some long time ago by “WALL STREET”. But now that the “Russian cat with distemper is out of the bag”, if tonight your lights go out just blame it on the Russians or North Korea’s “Little Man” as then the “Corporate” liability finds a lullaby. Exactly what’s behind this scare, as the “Russian Hackers” have been here longer then has Stormy weather.