Why Russian Claims About Cyber Successes Are Suspicious

Russian cyber hackers claimed to have penetrated the operations of a Canadian gas pipeline and caused some disruption. For those of us living some distance from the equator, mostly northerners, but also a few hardy souls in the south, interruptions in energy supply are rare, short lived, weather related, and almost always about electrical power. My friends in Houston, energy capital of the US, tell me that they frequently experience minor power interruptions, which we never hear about, because, frankly, it’s not news. But when oil or gas infrastructure is involved, it’s newsworthy because it is a rare occurrence, the product is hazardous and hard to contain once it’s loose in the wild, and we generally have little direct experience about dealing with a protracted interruption in supply. In my 60 odd years (and lately they’ve been pretty odd), I have no memories at all about coping with fuel supply disruption. And that includes years living abroad, and lots of international travel. But there are a number of reasons why I’m skeptical about this story.