Dominant companies a fat target for hackers and cyberwarfare
CBSN
The recent ransomware attacks that temporarily crippled major U.S. suppliers of beef and fuel offer a frightening glimpse of the chaos cyberwarfare could sow, especially if the perpetrators were more focused on damaging critical infrastructure than reaping a financial bounty.
Security experts underscore the potential national implications of the attacks, saying they serve as a cautionary tale for how computerized mayhem can disrupt the economy, and even everyday life. Heightening those risks in recent years: industry consolidation that has concentrated market power in a handful of major companies and their computer networks — potential chokepoints that could be used to disable U.S. supplies of key products and services. "Both the Colonial Pipeline and JBS events are really good reminders that there are significant concentration points in the supply chain for critical goods and services in the U.S. that need special attention," David White, president of cyber risk management company Axios, told CBS MoneyWatch.Authorities made two gruesome discoveries Tuesday after a Missouri woman walked into a police station and told officers that she fatally shot one of her children and drowned the other, officials said. Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said at a news conference that authorities believe both children were killed Tuesday morning.
Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving more than one million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people in seven states during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.