Underground Action Calendar refreshed

Our Underground Action Calendar lists attacks from as far back as the 1970s, to inspire and serve as a research tool. We include a variety of actions from around the world, some carried out by individuals, some by organized militant groups. Targets range from local earth-destroying construction equipment to networks of oil wells and pipelines. Browsing the list gives a good idea of what can be accomplished with simple acts of monkeywrenching or with persistent campaigns against industrial infrastructure.

We’ve just refreshed the Calendar to make it even more inspirational to browse, and more useful as a research tool. We’ve cleaned out symbolic attacks and those based on a strategy of economic attrition, to focus instead on actions directly and concretely reducing the ability of the rich and powerful to destroy the earth. The descriptions of each attack are short and to the point so that you can quickly look through the list; each action links to a communique or news article with more information on the action if you want to research further.

You can filter by the attack target: for example, if you’re curious how railroad traffic has been disrupted in the past, select “Railway.” Or you can filter by the attack method: if you’re curious what kinds of infrastructure have been attacked with anything from air rifles to rocket launchers, select “Shooting.”

You can also filter by Country, sort by date, or search actions for keywords.

If you know of any attacks we’ve missed, especially current events (or historic attacks which expand the diversity of what we’re presenting), please email them to undergroundpromotion@deepgreenresistance.org

NOTE: We only accept communications about actions that are already publicly known in one form or another. Do not send original communiques directly to this email address. This is not a secure means of communication.

Browse the Underground Action Calendar and share widely!

Vulnerability of infrastructure to cyber attacks

In November, Admiral Michael Rogers spoke to the House Select Intelligence Committee on Cybersecurity. Rogers, the National Security Agency (NSA) Director & U.S. Cyber Command Commander, spoke on the vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure to cyberattacks due to the proliferation of network technologies which are relied upon for that infrastructure’s functioning. Sectors of the economy vulnerable to cyber attacks run the gamut, from energy to oil and gas to government to aviation. In his assessment, no major part of the interconnected global economic system is not vulnerable to cyber attacks.

While this hearing focused mainly on the threat that foreign nation states pose to the U.S., the topic of non-government groups committing catastrophic attacks on infrastructure was brought up as well. In comparing the cyber threat to the nuclear threat of the Cold War era, it has been determined that the cyber threat is a much greater risk because of the ease with which groups with few resources can gain the tools necessary to commit potent attacks, whereas obtaining nuclear weapons is much more difficult.

Main points:

  • Foreign powers (China, Iran, and Russia) have the capability to inflict damage on critical U.S. infrastructure through cyber attacks
  • Primary concern is this nation state threat
  • Secondary threat is gangs/ groups (nation states have been using these groups to execute probing as well as attacks, in order to obscure their own fingerprints)
  • Types of attacks used:
    • Distributed denial of service (DDoS); not a sophisticated attack, but can do a lot of damage in large scale/ high velocity attacks
    • Sophisticated viruses (Iran)
    • Trojan horse malware (Russia)
  • Main targets to worry about:
    • Energy sector (foreign powers have been probing for weaknesses and have gained access to control systems, which could allow nation states / groups to shut down those systems)
    • Financial systems / institutions (major threat)
    • Oil and gas infrastructure
    • Water distribution and filtration systems
    • Government
    • Aviation
  • Attacks can be segmented to perform different kinds of things (cut off power transmissions to specific sectors, turn off specific generators and turbines, etc.)

Watch the full hearing to learn more about cyber vulnerabilities of infrastructure.