"...suggesting opponents of the nuclear industry might have been behind the scare"

While opposition to such things is fair enough, surely this passes WAY beyond what anyone might think a "reasonable protest"?

Well, if nothing else, maybe it will prompt Russia to take the activities of their very active local hacking community a little more seriously.

Although I'm always up for "stickin to the man" in this case I must agree with AC.

Bringing down a website and letting panic insue is all good and well when all thats at stake is a share price, is one thing but when ppl are necking iodine, well, thats a little different!

It's hard to believe anything that any government says anymore. They've all buried themselves is horseshit so deep that even when something is true, the people are in doubt. Seeing as how the commies hold the honor for the biggest nuclear accident in history, it would be in their favor to cover up the entire thing and blame "hackers". If they actually reported a problem people would panic and undermine the power of the government.

"While opposition to such things is fair enough, surely this passes WAY beyond what anyone might think a "reasonable protest"?"

You mean like Greenpeace "protests"? It is either some radical anti-nuke group, some really bad taste prank, or some kind of "social experiment" to see how the masses react to such a thing.

Last weekend a chain-mail went around the 'net where the drugdealer cartels supposedly imposed a "curfew" in Juarez City, Mexico; stating that anyone on the streets would be killed, and it would be the bloodiest weekend in history. Guess what: nothing happened. But it does sound more like "terrorism" in its original meaning: get people to live in terror. Such a prank stating "NUCULAR MELTDOWN, D00D!" sounds like that, especially in a country that's near the site of the worst nuclear accident in human history.

The vulture died of iodine overdose.

I have heard they are linked to "the man".

The spokesman for Rosatom went on to say that there was no connection to the emergency shutdown of Sizewell B.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7423169.stm

See this report from OMB to the US House of Representatives last week. Addressing information security weaknesses within the TVA.

www.gao.gov/new.items/d08526.pdf

Nothing like incompetence.

So if "cracker" is allowed, how about "honkey"?

It's not just Russia that gets hit by hoaxes re nukular plants... there was an email+newsgroup hoax re an alleged Sizewell incident and resulting evacuation only as far back as April... one day soon it won't be a hoax, but fortunately Gordon and a chosen few will have a nice safe bunker to retreat to (can we put them down there for a test run, and throw away the key, please?)

...I stick with biscuits.

er, did that comment pass down a worm hole from the 80's? Russia is no longer a communist state, meaning that they are not 'commies'.

Today they are a nuclear armed capitalist state intent on using their military and economic strength to brow beat other states to their will and excercise increasing control over their own population to ensure no internal dissent....er, no sorry I just confused them with the USA

Russia is currently governed by pretty much the exact same people that were in power during the Chernobyl disaster, so Solomon is only wrong in the sense that they don't call themselves commies any more. The President and de facto supreme ruler is ex-KGB - some revolution that is. The end of communism in Russia wasn't a change of power, it was a rebranding exercise.

This hack seems more like a lame version of the 90's hacking group milw0rm than a serious hack. Milw0rm actually did it. These guys used some ddos!

Whatever the official line, there's a good chance that this stunt was pulled at the behest of Western intelligence services - after all, the Russian government is believed to have, erm, not exactly actively discouraged, the web assault on Estonia last year... This would be a useful way of reminding them that using hackers to further foreign policy is a two-edged sword.