In 1992, a reclusive young man from Portland, Ore., used his computer to gain access to the control systems for all the dams in northern California. He first penetrated the Bureau of Land Management s computers in Portland, which provided the system connections he needed to enter the dam controls. PhantomDialer, or PhantomD as he was known among hackers, could have opened the gates of the Oroville Dam and flooded the surrounding region, causing incalculable damage and loss of life. Dams are a phenomenal stored energy weapon, says Stephen Northcutt, an expert on information warfare and director of the SANS Institute s Global Incident Analysis Center. Airports are below dams.
Housing developments are below dams.
Military bases are below dams. PhantomD spent 12 to 13 hours each day at his computer breaking into scores of computers, in-cluding systems containing sensitive information vital to national security. His motives apparently were not evil. But with hostile intent, he could have been deadly. The rapidly growing Internet is a ripe target for computer-based attacks.