Hackers Causing Train Wrecks - So Much for Government Mandated High Speed Rail?

Do you remember when Y2K came along, and everyone was counting down the New Year's, half expecting all the lights to go out and the power to go off, and utter chaos to ensue throughout our society and civilization? As you know, nothing happened, but in the back of everyone's mind, it was as if they were wondering if the catastrophic failure of our infrastructure and all of our computer networks which run everything would actually collapse. Okay so, let's talk about this for second.

There was an interesting article in Government Executive on January 23, 2012 titled; "Hackers manipulated railway computers, TSA memo says," by Aliya Sternstein.

The article stated; "Hackers, possibly from abroad, executed a targeted attack on a Northwest rail company's computers that disrupted railway signals for two days in December, according to a government memo recapping outreach with the transportation sector during the emergency."

Ouch! Now that's scary indeed, if hackers are able to get into our rail system they could cause trains to derail, collide with one another, and create terrible accidents. As you know chemicals, gases, and other things which are very detrimental for the environment are moved by train. If our rail infrastructure stops, so does the supply line, and whereas there are other distribution and transportation methods, they would be stressed to the maximum, and we'd soon see shortages on the shelves.

Worse, we also know that there are passenger trains, and we are busy trying to figure out how to build high-speed rail throughout our country. It gets rather serious when you have a train moving at over 150 miles an hour, and someone hacks the system, if that's not an action drama genre ready for the big screen, I don't know what would be. Does this mean that all of our new government mandated high-speed rail projects must also come with a cyber defense system? If so, that will raise the cost of such projects to even a greater extent - not to mention insurance - thus, ticket prices too.

We are already worried about the return on investment of public funding for such projects, and this will just add more cost, and vulnerability. That will cause riders to not wish to partake or use high-speed rail because they do not trust it. Without that trust and the ridership, the economies of scale cannot work, and let's not forget government projects like this such as Amtrak have never really made any money anyway.

It appears as if there is a cold war going on behind the scenes between governments and hacker networks. Unfortunately for our infrastructure, and the various targets of cyber hacking, it looks as if the hackers are winning. And whereas corporations, governments, and the military have thousands of hacking attempts per day, with very few ever getting in, the reality is that some are getting through. That's a scary thought if you are going down the track in 150 miles per hour in a high-speed train with your family. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Internet Security. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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What Can I Do to Speed Up My Computer? Virus and Spyware Check

One of the most devastating experiences to encounter with your personal computer is watching your system completely destroyed by a violent electronic infection called a virus or a malware. These viruses have some observable symptoms such as your computer running slow. Your PC performance can even fall below the average performance standards in the face of a virus infection. Another observable sign of malware infection in your computer are such as having programs start automatically all by themselves without having to click on the open command. Error messages on your screen can be enough evidence that a virus has crept in your computer as well as having your hard disk constantly struggling to work. This is also explained by having your modem constantly blinking as it is being forced to spread the unwelcome program all over in your hard disks. These signs should prompt you have a defensive software installed in your computer.

There are different types of computer malware that creep into your computer with varying purposes. These types of malware comprise of harmless viruses that will just want to crawl into your system just gathering information and actually not infecting your computer in any way. Then there are the extremely dangerous malware that will even alter how your computer operates completely. Some can even damage the computer for good. These types of malware are Trojan horses, backdoors among others. Some malware such as spyware, boot nets and dialers are usually profit malware.

Maintaining the standard performance of your computer means that you simply have to keep your system clean by removing all kinds of malware from your system. The first way that you can achieve this is by installing antivirus software in your system and running it at least once a week. Setting the antimalware correctly will destroy existing viruses as well as preventing other viruses from creeping in your PC. Also, quarantine can be of great help as it can be used as storage for the infected files. Also, updating your software now and then can be really helpful as it helps your computer stay clean and helps prevent appearance of malware and other associated computer threats. Running a free antivirus at least once a month provides an alternative virus check up. This is however achievable if you periodically work online as it provides a quick and a free scan on your computer. By so doing, you will be able to get loose of any computer virus in your system as well as preventing others from creeping into your computer.

Its always advisable to make sure that all the virus found in your PC are promptly removed and moving the infected files in quarantine is always preferred in the worst case scenario.

Presence of virus and malware in a computer can be overwhelming. It can not only slow down the computer but also can make it crash without any notice. To speed up my computer and protect it from unwelcoming viruses and malwares, a powerful antivirus application can help a lot. Other than that, a good registry cleaner can also speed up my computer as it can detect spywares living inside the registry and eliminate it.

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