Who Should Hack Power: Criminals or the Government? What's the Difference?

Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, according to a CIA analyst, and unless IT professionals begin to close the antiquated systems down or truly security test them, the government will next move to regulate the process.

At a SANS Institute conference of security professionals, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks.

The talk was long on threats while painfully scarce on specifics as to what actually went wrong.

Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.

Of course the government will have to supervise this process unless IT professionals step up their efforts. The alternative is to have the government spying on every power grid in the country.

Wouldn't we all rather have a choice and some options to government spying and intrusion?