Security News > 2011 > February > No, Hackers Canât Open Hoover Dam Floo dgates
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/hoover/ By David Kravets Threat Level Wired.com February 3, 2011 The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is shooting down a key legislative talking point: that the internet âkill-switchâ legislation is needed to prevent cyberterrorists from opening the Hoover Damâs floodgates. The brouhaha started last week, when legislative aides on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee offered Threat Level examples of why the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act was needed. The bill, one aide said, would give the president the power to force âthe system that controls the floodgates to the Hoover Damâ to cut its connection to the net if the government detected an imminent cyberattack. At a panel in Washington last week, a GOP staffer working on the bill was even more terrifying. âWe are very concerned about an electronic control system that could cause the floodgates to come open at the Hoover Dam and kill thousands of people in the process,â said Brandon Milhorn, staff director of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. âThatâs a significant concern.â It turns out, though, that all the Hoover Dam doomsaying doesnât sit well with Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the power-generating facility on the Arizona-Nevada state line. [...]