A different kind of war? Cyber attacks to decimate economies?

NotSpaghetti

Just heard Harrods may have also been breached.

As well as M&S.
These firms will have to pay more in future to make themselves even more secure.

OldFrill

Brahumbug

Absolutely nothing to do with renewables, where did that from?

Spain' electricity, very recently, is being supplied solely by renewables, the transmission of renewable electricity is different from more traditional electricity transmission, investigators are looking into this difference as a possible cause.

Spain imports significant quantities of electricity from France and Portugal. The French power will almost certainly have come from nuclear power stations.

Just heard Harrods may have also been breached.

petra - probably the pentagon!

Years ago my next door neighbours daughter shut down the whole schools computer system during the GCEs examinations. She was upset as she wanted to take one exam but teacher didn't allow it due to poor results in mock exams. The school never discovered who did it. She works with computers now.
I think we are very vulnerable to cyber attacks and agree it could easily paralyse a country.

nanna8
That was my daughter’s first job in tech.
She was in a team of 4 who were given bank cards ( obviously false) and then they had to break into those accounts.

She often points out to companies where they have a weakness.

My young friends autistic son ( 10) often breaks into the computer system at the special school he goes to.
Today was one of those days.

Remember the young lad from Wickford who broke into pentagon? I wonder who he’s working for now 🤔

There is a thread about this running somewhere

I see that a government dept. (Not sure which - Treasury?) is suggesting that we hoard some money at home.

Hmm - I can see thieves rubbing their hands.

I must work out a good hiding spot, if it becomes a necessity.

C-op has been cyber attacked today

Older companies often don't want to update systems that have been tinkered with for years. They probably should have been replaced but the transition is hugely costly and they are reluctant to risk downtime.

My son (another IT bod) has been warning one of his clients about risk for at least a year and it was only when they had a disaster that they allowed him to implement the full plan he'd originally suggested.
He is now billing them for 100s of hours.

My friend (now 70s) was paid a retainer from his mid 50s to be "on call" for a massive company using a now defunct system to track stock. It was programmed in a language something he used at college in his 20s that nobody uses now.
He was laughing last autumn as they have finally taken advice to transfer to a modern system and were asking to terminate the contract - once they had done it!

I suppose early adopters of modern technology/computing are easily left behind.
Come later - come cheaper?

Is this Putin/China hackers showing us what is possible?

No. I don't think so.
Neither that nor the substation fires yesterday and (?) last month.

What sort of a world do we live in!

We had a speaker at Probus who used to try to crack security systems in banks etc as part of his employment by them, to see if it was possible. He said it was often laughably easy and he used to report back to the managing directors who were horrified. It’s really a wonder it doesn’t happen more often. He told us a few things to do to protect ourselves, including using a VPN before doing any online banking or paying bills online.

Cyber attacks are a problem we are going to have to cope with in the future, not just from enemy’s but from groups of malicious individuals.

Technical failures are always going to happen, the power cuts in Spain were caused by a 5 second cut in one of the supply systems, followed by a chain reaction when connected systems overloaded. Restoring supply can only be done stage buy stage which causes so much disruption.

It appears relatively easy to hack into systems. My dgs hacked into his school system when he was 9 and built his own computer when he was 14. Lots of teenagers have the interest and ability

DS, was cyber security, told me that many companies have been attacked but keep quiet as they don`t want to scare clients away

It must be relatively easy to cause disruption in old infrastructure, I am thinking Russia or people with grudges.

I am convinced its a Cyber attack despite being told its not, its said to avoid panic, on line banking will be next. You have to look at who will gain by this.

Maybe it is just a coincidence but I find it odd that M&S was found at fault in an employment tribunal (discrimination) then had a cyber attack.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Spain, Portugal and France have electricity outages today.

My sister who lives in Estapona has no electricity at present and says all RENFE trains in Spain are cancelled.

M&S here in the UK are experiencing a 3rd day of cyber malware affecting on line ordering which has cost the company £800 million so far.

What are your thoughts?
Is this Putin/China hackers showing us what is possible?

Or Trump. USA owns social media. Just saying.

That’s exactly what I think. China flexing its muscles …. Be afraid. Very afraid.

The Guardian is now reporting:

A major cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer has been linked to a hacking collective known as Scattered Spider, which is previously thought to have hit MGM Resorts and the US casino operator Caesars.

The group, which has previously been found to include people in their 20s from the UK and the US – some of whom faced charges over attempts to steal cryptocurrency via phishing attacks in the US – are reported to have encrypted key M&S systems using ransomware, according to the technology specialist site BleepingComputer.

Tim Mitchell, a senior threat researcher at SecureWorks, said that ... Scattered Spider, also known as Octo Tempest, appeared to be “quite unusual” as a hacking group in that they were largely English-speaking – unlike the majority of such groups, which are based in places such as Russia, where there is a more “permissive environment” where they have more freedom to operate.

He added: “Their motivation appears to be as much about bragging rights on those channels [where they communicate] as about money.”

More here:

www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/29/m-and-s-cyber-attack-linked-to-hacking-group-scattered-spider

It is due to a general lack of service coupled with dumbing down and lack of funds.
Lack of service - I can see things need maintaining but it's not MY job, so why do I care
Dumbing down - the person who designed and built this is no longer around and we did not keep notes or records, so we do not actually know, or have the skills to work out how to fix it
Lack of funds - we do not have enough people to test or check things on a regular basis, so we skip until something breaks (see also potholes)

Yes like you, UTBB, first delayed then cancelled. Maybe they might induce all of us who had ordered through our Sparks offers another opportunity by reissuing the same Sparks discounts. Maybe?

Terribull bedding I ordered from M&S has now been cancelled, first I got an email saying it was delayed, now cancelled. Annoying as , like yours, it was a sparks offer and now will cost more to buy in store or reorder.

petra

Neither of the above. It’s companies, governments etc taking their eye off the ball where cyber security is concerned.
And then there’s always a few who don’t want to pay to get problems fixed.

Absolutely. Trying, as in so many other ways, to run our country on the cheap