Iran May Have Acquired S-300 Missile Defense Systems

According to unconfirmed reports Iran has purchased 4 S-300 (NATO designation, SA-10 Grumble) surface to air missile platforms, possibly in an effort to prevent a U.S. or Israeli air strike.

Though currently denying the allegations, Belarus is said to have supplied two of missile platforms and the other two come from an another as yet unknown source.

The report could be a ploy by the Iranians to delay or avoid an air strike, but if they do have the missile systems an air strike will be more difficult. Those difficulties aside the U.S. is still said to have a viable attack plan for Iran.

Though Belarus is denying the sale, Janes Defence Weekly reported as far back as January 2008 that they were in negotiations to purchase the S-300's from them.

Coronal Mass Ejection May Cause Disruptions, Being Called Solar Tsunami by Some

Source SDO

Are you prepared to deal with communications disruptions, power outages and other effects from solar storms? If you haven't yet considered the possibility that your business could be disrupted by such an event, read on.

Four large Coronal Mass Ejection's or CME's occurred on the 1st of August (see August 1, 2010 CME) causing an intense light show when they arrived here on August 2nd. NOAA forecasters are expecting the second cloud to arrive either tonight or tomorrow on August 5th.

While the Sun has been quiet for some time now, two of the four CME's that I am aware of, are being called Solar Tsunami's by the media, were Earth facing and classified as a C-3 and a C-2 in the solar flare classification scale.

Why is this an important event? Because scientists are concerned that the electrical impulses may damage certain parts of our infrastructure such as the power grids, telephone lines and several satellites may also be damaged by the event.

Since I am always looking at emerging events that can disrupt your business, I'd like to point out that I  wrote about this topic last July in the following post: Sun Spots, Solar Flares, and Geomagnetic Induced Currents Can Disrupt Your Business.

Truthfully, these current CMS's shouldn't do anything more than provide a spectacular light show, but disruptions can still occur. The one to watch will be the predicted soalr storm of 2013 if it happenes. We will provide updates to this event as it unfolds if anything important surrounding it occurs.

The estimated time of arrival of the event is list as follows: 

• Wednesday, August 4 – 07:00 UTC
• Wednesday, August 4 – 17:00 UTC
• Thursday, August 5 – 00:00 UTC
• Thursday, August 5 – 06:00 UTC

15 Minutes to Apocalypse – The Cyber Warfare Threat

When most people think of cyber warfare, they are probably thinking of a battle taking place sometime in the future. The other thought most people probably have is they think the United States as a being a leader in this area.

The truth is cyber warfare is already here and the United States is lagging far behind. Not only that but a majority of all services deemed as critical infrastructure are in the hands or under control of the private sector.

Currently 30 countries are known to have viable offensive and defensive cyber warfare capabilities with the top potential threats recognized as being Russia, China, and believe it or not North Korea, which is also the most dangerous country to have these capabilities. North Korea has already taken out systems run by the U.S. Treasury, Secret Service, and Federal Trade Commission.

Cyber warfare is a reality in today's world - Timeline of Cyber Attacks since May 2006 - which will likely be used in combination with conventional attacks and as stand alone attacks far into the future from here on.

While some point to these threats as fear mongering, unrealistic, and even as impossible to pull off I would venture to say they do not fully appreciate just how vulnerable we are should a massive attack bring down much of our infrastructure.

One thing to note about these types of attacks is the social engineering aspect, which no amount of security hardware or software can protect against. We need to better train employees to understand phishing attacks, to guard passwords, what to look and listen for during the social engineer aspect of any attack. Good security practices should incorporate continuous training with real world examples.

As the recent attacks against Google, Rackspace and others showed our private sector is just as much a target for malicious attacks. We must remain vigilant and proper training training is an important part of securing our networks.

See the Reference link below for more detailed information on this.

Volcanic Ash Causes Disruptions and Anger Over EU Response

Just when you thought your business continuity and disaster preparedness planning had accounted for everything, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupts spewing ash into the atmosphere and into trans-Atlantic and European flight paths.

The ash prompted the closing of European airspace and cost the air carriers an estimated $1.7 Billion U.S. Dollars. It also resulted in a backlash of anger from both passengers and carries who feel that the need for a complete shut down of European airspace was unnecessary.

Most of the outrage seems directed at EU leaders and why it took them five days before they even had a conference call on the issueonce the flights were canclled. Though safety should be the top concern many are wondering why proper monitoring of ash by airplanes with sensors is not being done as is in the United States.

Most organizations today do not have plans for volcanic eruptions and disruptions caused by ash clouds in their business continuity and disaster preparedness plans (unless they are in close proximity to a volcano). However, most organizations especially the ones who operate globally, have plans based on travel disruptions (or at least they should).

These travel disruption situations should work well and are a good example of how you can use All-Hazards planning within your business.

The current models (computer based models - of which I am not a big fan) and guidance from International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are based on data from the 1980's dictate that when there is ash present flights remain grounded.

Today, after the complete closure of EU airspace and the economic loss from the flights many are calling for new methods and consider the response outdated. New methods and scientific data should be utilized but safety should be the first and foremost consideration and not profits.

As stated in the video interview above this could develop over time and become worse leaving only windows for air travel during the next few months if the volcano continues to erupt.

More information:

BBC - How Volcano Chaos Unfolded in Graphics

BBC - Iceland Volcano in Maps

BBC - Animated Guide Volcanoes

Asteroid 2010 GA6 Will Pass Close to Earth Today

Last year I did a significant post on a near miss of earth by an asteroid that occurred on March 2, 2009. Today another recently discovered asteroid measuring approximately 71 feet across will pass close to the earth. The asteroid named 2010 GA6 will pass within 223,000 miles of earth and will be 16,000 miles closer to us than the moon. The event will occur approximately at 4:00 pm PST.

This past January another asteroid passed within 76,000 miles of earth as well.

Though it should pass safely the discovery of the number of asteroids passing near the earth is on the rise due to more time, techniques and research being devoted to their discovery.

Referred to NEO's (Near Earth Objects) there are a number of groups and people concerned with this external threat that these objects present. One of the most notable organizations involved in this area is The Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Committee on Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)

The ASE-NEO committee is dedicated to raising awareness of this issue and in efforts to get the international community to protect the Earth from future asteroid impacts.

Another interesting group which I have only become recently aware of through some brief communications with Rusty Schweickart is the B612 Foundation. The goal of the B612 Foundation is to find a method for significantly altering the orbit of an asteroid so that it does not impact the earth. They plan on doing this by 2015.

Interestingly enough Rusty Schweickart and I are planning on getting together sometime in the next moth or two to discuss this very issue. I'll keep you posted as to what occurs and how I become involved more with this issue over the next several months.