Contact Lost With Planes One by One as FAA Fire Spread

[35NCO]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1...re-spread.html

One guy could do all that...

Dont we have industry standards to how backup systems and remote sites are designed today? If the FAA is not following them, that is pretty scary.

[PSM]

Did anything bad happen? Unlike the common misconception, pilots fly airplanes, not Air Traffic Controllers.

Pat

[The Reaper]

No vulnerability assessment or hardening of critical nodes?

Wonder how many other places (and key infrastructure targets) could be attacked in a similar fashion?

TR

[SF-TX]

Apparently, it was sabotage conducted by an employee/contractor. He attacked the primary nodes and the backup systems. Insider knowledge and access that allowed him to attack the critical nodes with maximum effect.

[Scimitar]

According to the article, It sounds like the region ACC and FFA team has really stepped up to the plate though, and are bending over backwards to get everything flying right again. Well done fellas.

S

[mugwump]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

No vulnerability assessment or hardening of critical nodes?

Wonder how many other places (and key infrastructure targets) could be attacked in a similar fashion?

TR

Fifty guys could bring down the Internet for a long, long time without firing a shot. One fiber optic node in Manhattan alone would bring down the eastern seaboard. Three, maybe four node centers, cut maybe five major fiber optic cables, take out several DNS data centers -- that's all it would take to crash the economy.

The location of all this infrastructure is detailed online -- it's mandated by federal regs. I recall a few years back a network security guru picked an address off of a list and just walked into a major node facility in central Illinois. He took selfies next to the cabling/infrastructure.

All the data cables come ashore along beaches. They're supposed to be buried but the ocean does its thing. Hell, you can see the cables coming ashore via Google Earth.

Our underbelly is so soft that I'm shocked that this hasn't happened yet. Especially when many detailed attack scenarios have been published on the Internet (some by regulators trying to wake people up) or woven into apocalyptic fiction. One site lists the address of the Manhattan building that houses the critical node for the east coast and even has a picture of the single doorman/guard who is the only security for the building.

Google "how to take down the Internet" sometime. Or "how to take down the grid."

[1stindoor]

Originally Posted by SF-TX

Apparently, it was sabotage conducted by an employee/contractor. He attacked the primary nodes and the backup systems. Insider knowledge and access that allowed him to attack the critical nodes with maximum effect.

Sometimes I wish we had a nice mnemonic to help us figure out those same things.

[Badger52]

Camp Douglas — Wisconsin Air National Guard Technical Sgt. Gabriel Torres was at work the morning of Sept. 26 when his radar screen and radio suddenly stopped working as he handled flights passing through the Chicago En Route Center air traffic control facility.

Then he heard a fire alarm and filed outside with the rest of the workers at the facility in Aurora, Ill. Torres smelled an electrical fire, and when he saw a firetruck pull up followed by another, he realized something serious had happened.

Within 48 hours Torres and fellow air traffic controller Master Sgt. Kenneth Evans were on their way to Volk Field, a 31/2-hour drive, where they normally spend one weekend each month as Wisconsin Air National Guard members doing the same job they perform in their civilian lives.

Volk Field is among several air traffic control facilities in the Midwest that quickly stepped up to handle thousands of flights that would normally be handled by Chicago Center after the facility was seriously damaged by an arson fire. Because of the unique nature of civilian-soldiers in the National Guard, Volk Field seamlessly shifted into a busy facility that allowed flights to continue without much delay. Aside from Torres and Evans, who currently work at Chicago Center, the head of Volk Field's radar approach control and control tower worked at Chicago Center.

Chief Master Sgt. Wayne "Buck" Reynolds, who worked at Chicago Center from 2001-'06 before returning full time to the Wisconsin Air National Guard, was in a meeting on Sept. 26 when he heard about the fire. Reynolds is responsible for staffing and operations of both the radar approach control and the control tower at Volk Field. He told FAA officials Volk Field was ready to help.

Rest of the story.

Soft spot in my heart for the place. Many years ago while getting my instrument ticket got to shoot a PAR into there (for uninitiated, the approach where they literally talk you down without navaids), and that guy was good (or at least made me look good). Not a box everyone gets to check and was alot of fun.