infrastructure, the power grid is one of the most vulnerable to cyber attack.wer grid is run and regulated by private utilities, which are unbeholden to government security decrees. >> i'll walk through the steps an attacker might take. >> here at the sandia national laboratories, department of energy security specialists like john mulder try to hack into the computer systems of power and water companies and other sensitive targets in order to figure out the best way to sabotage them. it's all done with the companies' permission in order to identify their vulnerabilities, and this is a graphic demonstration of how they could have destroyed an oil refinery by sending out code that caused a crucial component to overheat. >> the first thing you would do is turn it to manual controls so that your automatic controls aren't protecting you. >> what would be your main target here? >> the heating element and the re-circulator pump. if we could malfunction both of those, we could cause an explosion. >> how would you do that? >> the first thing we had to do was actually g

the chinese army penetrates and controls america's electric power grid. what about the american water supply? 1,000 spies at work tonight. what does the u.s. do next? brian ross is here. >>> his story. olympic athlete oscar pistorius in court today. tonight, what he says about why he shot his girlfriend. >>> made in america? could the next pope be from boston? meet the cardinal rising to the top of the list. >>> and, the secret of success. how to turn your family into a dynamic, happy team, making sure everyone wins. >>> good evening. a new report tonight lifts the veil on a kind of invisible war. china, unleashing its full spy power on american power grids and the wealth of american manufacturing. a new report even locates this building in shanghai. it doesn't look threatening, but what are they doing inside? and what does it mean for americ america's national security? here's abc's brian ross. >> reporter: the chinese people's liberation army is the biggest military force in the world, with more than 2 million soldiers. but it is the thousand or so in t

the chinese army penetrates controls on america's electric power grid.t the american water supply? 1,000 spies at work tonight. what does the u.s. do next? brian ross is here. >>> his story. olympic athlete oscar pistorius in court today. tonight, what he says about why he shot his girlfriend. >>> made in america? could the next pope be from boston? meet the cardinal rising to the top of the list. >>> and, the secret of success. how to turn your family into a dynamic, happy team, making sure everyone wins. >>> good evening. a new report tonight lifts the veil on a kind of invisible war. china, unleashing its full spy power on american power grids and the wealth of american manufacturing. a new report even locates this building in shanghai. it doesn't look threatening, but what are they doing inside? and what does it mean for america's national security? here's abc's chief investigative correspondent brian ross. >> reporter: the chinese people's liberation army has more than 2 million personnel. but it is the thousand or so in this nondescript building in

>> certainly it could be taken off the power grid to go after the financial systems. and that it might be combined with some kind of an attack or a combination. physical war with the cyber element. and i've got to wonder if they are thinking about that. almost like the cold war where everybody would like to go as far as they can without igniting the convention award as we come to think of it and they want as many secrets as they can without making everyone so upset that something else has to happen. >> yes, there is a similar element of the destruction that they could hack into the other country systems and their power grid will take that system down as well as they can. >> yes. that's an important point. can you win a cyber war or is it win some lose some proposition in >> i guess it depends on what the objective is. >> hmm. okay. so we want to be injected into hacking into facebook or twitter. >> well certainly you could do that. the advantage of that might be to steal source codes to use it to launch an attack against another system. so hack into facebook and from

the president made the case that america's power grid, financial institutions and air traffic control systems, are vulnerable to attacks. so he's calling on congress to pass legislation to give the u.s. government the capacity it needs to secure our networks. the president also issued an executive order, to create cyber security standards for u.s. businesses, and for the government to share more information about threats. but cyber security experts, say while that sounds easy, it's hard to do. >> you can't just inform one party necessarily, you might really have an obligation as a government to inform every player in a sector, and then of course that's a high bar, because you're sharing the information with a lot of people which increases the likelihood that it might get out back into the wrong hands. >> susie: beckstrom says the threat of cyber attack or manipulation to critical infrastructure like the power grid and transportation systems is much worse than most people expect. from the "ramones" to the "clash," still ahead, investing in punk rock history, and the prices might surpri

and power grid. >> the only reason would you want to get in the control system for the power grid is to cause damage destruction and disruption. >>reporter: among the many corporate targets of the chinese hacker according to u.s. officials lockheed marti martin. country largely east defense contractor and the maker of the f 35 jet fighter. u.s. officials say not surprisingly the chinese version of the plane has some distinct similarity. >> costing according to u.s. intelligence hundreds office billions of dollars and thousands of u.s. jobs he have year. >> what it house today confirmed the severity although not the details of the chinese seener spying. >> we have repeatedly raised our concerns at the highest level about cybertheft with senior chinese officials. >>reporter: but china remains in denial. according to abc gloria in beijing. >> today in china defense men industry depended any wrongdoing saying the military has never supported any form of hacking activity. but when a bbc news team tried to film the building outside shanghai military personnel confiscated the footage. >>rep

infrastructure has yet been successfully targeted, power grids, transportation systems and financial networks are all potentially vulnerable. until he retired last year, sean henry ran the f.b.i.'s cyber unit. is a serious cyber attack against some critical system in the u.s. inevitable? >> i think that it is very, very likely. >> reporter: near term? >> i think that is near term. i'm quite frankly surprised it hasn't happened yet. >> reporter: officials have described the potential attacks in the most dire terms, warning of another 9/11. scott, one official said decades ago terrorists came after us with planes, the next weapon could be key boards. >> pelley: bob, thank you. there is more troubling political violence in north africa. in tunisia, where the arab spring began more than two years ago, a top opposition politician was assassinated today. he was 48 and was gunned down today as he left his house in tunis. that sparked violent street protests and a promise from tunisia's prime minister to hold elections as soon as possible. we are about to get a reminder from that winter can

and cyber is now at a point where the technology is there to cripple a country, to take down our power grid system, to take down our government systems, take down our financial systems and literally paralyze the country. >> pelley: now, the pentagon set up a cyber command to practice both offense and defense on the computer battlefield. now cyber command is expanding five-fold, and we asked bob orr to look into who's behind the computer threat. >> reporter: despite its imposing facade, the u.s. federal reserve could not stop the latest attack. on sunday, hackers broke into a fed computer system then stole and published the private phone numbers of 4,000 u.s. bankers. that breach followed recent revelations that cyber spies had also infiltrated computer networks at three american newspapers: the "washington post," "wall street journal," and "new york times." investigators traced those attacks on the papers to government-backed hackers in china looking to monitor coverage of chinese politics. everyday, state-sponsored spies- - the majority from china-- are infiltrating key government and busi

banking, the power grid, transportation from attacks. many from china. congress refused to pass legislation last year to improve cyber defenses. republicans objected to new regulations and civil liberties groups worried about privacy. how vulnerable is america? only today the state department is investigating whether one of its associated websites was hacked last night by the activist group known as "anonymous." the attorney general today quoted cyber security experts as saying america now has two types of companies. those who know they have been hacked and those who don't know it yet. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our d.c. newsroom tonight, thanks. >>> the great american city of kansas city was rocked to its core last night. a huge explosion at a popular restaurant, well-known locally and to business travelers. one person has been found dead. the search for more possible victims goes on. and there's a big early indicator as to the cause. nbc's john yang with us tonight from the scene. john, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this evening we'

. >> the only reason you would want to get into the control system for the power grid is to cause damage, destruction and disruption. >> reporter: among the many corporate targets of the chinese hackers, according to u.s. officials, lockheed martin, the country's largest defense contractor and the maker of the f-35 jet fighter. u.s. officials say, not surprisingly, the chinese version of the plane has some distinct similarities. >> it's costing, according to u.s. intelligence, hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of u.s. jobs every year. >> reporter: the white house today confirmed the severity, although not the details, of the chinese cyber espionage. >> we have repeatedly raised our concerns at the highest levels about cyber theft with senior chinese officials. >> reporter: but china remains in denial, according to abc's gloria riviera in beijing. >> reporter: today in china, the defense ministry denied any wrong doing, saying the military has never supported any form of hacking activity. but when a bbc news team tried to film the building outside shanghai, military per

power grid was in need of much. louder. transmission power. station was built in two thousand using techniques that reduced construction on the surrounding area. for all the other substations popping up in the area after it given the sometimes twenty degrees below zero temps engineers house and much of the machinery behind closed doors. including the federal grid company has increased the number of mountain substations many times the. transformers are already hooked in and deliver the right voltage to the mountain venue sites while under construction is said to be ready for action this march at the same time six more have been built provide the juice to the coastal. and surrounding areas if that weren't enough the existing substations have been updated to ensure the lights don't go out on the olympics. construction has progressed over the past few years. has been on a constant uptick. projects have been completed and. on the grid. power plants. stations have to give an extra. capacity to believe. that the clean. is a preferred fuel for generat

i don't think want whole power grid could be taken down but possible on a regional basis. think . disruption of air traffic control in bad weather and busy times . think the floy of oil in pipe lines and natural gas. they are run by automated croils. these are each subjects to disruption. everything that makes us pres perous and they also imperil us. >> and going to the atm machine . to do standard banking and all sorts of things we take for granted and super market scanners can beed bypass a cyber attack. >> everything you do depends on information security . in 2007, some hackers attacked want count reap of estonia and 97 percent of the people do electronic banking. >> and this week hackers had gotin into even the wall street journal and the new york times . i am sure when they got in want new york times they didn't find anything worth while. but a they got into the accounts was bush 41 and 43. that is scary stuff. the gate code to former president bush's house they were able to hack that. that is frightening, isn't it? >> llet me frighten you. our defense system are intruded on

power grid was in need of much. of transmission power. station was built in two thousand using techniques. construction on the surrounding area. for all the other substations popping up in the area after it given the sometimes twenty degrees below zero temps engineers how much of the machinery behind. the federal grid company has increased the number of substations many times the. transformers are already hooked in and deliver the right voltage to the mountain new sites while under construction is said to be ready for action this march at the same time six more have been built don't provide the juice to the coastal. and surrounding areas. existing substations have been updated. on the olympics. over the past few years. constant. projects have been completed and. on the grid. safe. power plants. stations had to give an extra. capacity to. produce supplies that the clean. is a person fuel for generators. one hundred seventy two kilometers about one hundred sixty. about four and a half kilometers off shore. station. absolutely. but the cutti

you can regulate the power grid and trains. the cause them to have higher levels of cyber security than they have now. you are an emergency responder. the gloomy to know what you would do it the emergency was not a hurricane or tornado or something he recognized. what if it was a cyber attack? would you know what to do that have exercised a cyber attack addax probably exercised a snowstorm -- attack? as you probably exercise a snowstorm. you are a law enforcement organization. at the state level it can help companies that have beenhacked that sometimes not all the attention they need from the federal level. you are an educational organization. you run universities and colleges. the big gap isn't trained personnel. we created something called scholarship for service. if you pledge to work for the government, we will pay for your education. i have a longer list the things you can understand. i have this all on the web site. you need to begin with a strategy. figure out what you think you mean to do and what you think the role of

they find out the chinese is messing around with the electric power grid.le most dangerous threat to the united states national security. much more than islam or anything i can think of. what we do, we continue to do business with them. america business goes there. they are a threat. we better pay attention to them. >> eric: i agree. the power friday is at risk. air traffic control is at risk. banking system is at risk. the chinese -- i hate this but the chinese prime minister pushed back. we have a quote from minister. i don't know how the finding of the report are credible. they traced it right back to them. >> dana: our college students are taken off for wickan and pafan holidays. >> bob: if you think about this, they have access to military secret from corporations that build the military equipment. if the chinese could continue to still this stuff, they don't worry abany research and -- any research and development. >> greg: to dan ab's point, america is a wash if cyber geeks. they all want jobs in silicon valley but they are instead on twitter advocat

power grid was in need of much more. transmission power. station was built in two thousand and. techniques that reduced the construction on the surrounding area. substations popping up in the area after it given the sometimes twenty degrees below zero temps engineers house and much of the machinery behind closed doors. including the federal grid company has increased the number of mountain substations many times the. transformers are already hooked in and deliver the right voltage to the mountain venue sites while under construction is said to be ready for action this march at the same time six more have been built provide the juice to the coastal. and surrounding areas if that weren't enough existing substations have been updated . on the olympics. construction has progressed over the past few years. has been on a constant uptick. projects have been completed and. the strain on the grid has increased threefold. safe. stations. hydroelectricity. power plants. stations have been constructed to give an extra nine hundred megawatts of capacity to the. largest natural gas producer.

power grid was a native. of transmission power. station was built in two thousand using techniques. construction on the surrounding area. for all the other substations popping up in the area after it given the sometimes twenty degrees below zero temps engineers house and much of the machinery behind closed doors. including the federal grid company has increased the number of mountain substations many times the. transformers are already hooked in and deliver the right voltage to the mountain new sites while under construction is said to be ready for action this march at the same time six more have been built provide the juice to the coastal. and surrounding areas if that weren't enough existing substations have been updated to ensure the lights don't go out on the olympics. constant. and. safe. to give an extra. capacity to. produce. that the clean. fuel for generators. one hundred seventy two. hundred sixty. kilometers. absolutely. but the cut. from the equation. it gives. to the. fifty fifty . this is. to compensate for spikes in energy consumption. the. choice is head which is cur

you can regulate the power grid and trains. that causes them to have higher levels of cyber security than they have now. you are an emergency responder. the gloomy to know what you would do it the emergency was not a hurricane or tornado or something he recognized. what if it was a cyber attack? would you know what to do that have exercised a cyber attack? you probably exercised a snowstorm. you are a law enforcement organization. at the state level it can help companies that have been hacked that sometimes not all the attention they need from the federal level. you are an educational organization. you run universities and colleges. the big gap isn't trained personnel. we created something called scholarship for service. if you pledge to work for the government, we will pay for your education. i have a longer list the things you can understand. i have this all on the web site. you need to begin with a strategy. figure out what you think you mean to do and what you think the role of government should be. where do you want to go

if you have a power grid go out while there's still light to be played. you can see the field. they don't completely allow them to keep going. we've seen this in other stadiums where we have weather related situations. there was nothing weather related to this. but we've seen this before where things are slowed down, they stop and then they resume again. but it's never happened on this stage. not with the lights shining so brightly on this game. >> i grew up in louisiana, spent a lot of time in new orleans. i grew up in baton rouge, i spent a lot of time in new orleans. people who live around the superdome, you know, the power goes out a lot around the superdome, the power grid gets stressed a lot. especially with the french quarter there and after hurricane katrina. usually there is a backup generator, a reserve generator, just like they have in hospitals. in any major facility, you would think in a sporting facility like that, they would have it, in an arena like that. things were going so well for new orleans when it came to recovery for hurricane katrina, every time i go ba

. >> clark gellings knows more about the nation's power grid than practically anyone.s a fellow at the electric power research institute. were you surprised what a beating the system took? >> i was surprised for a couple of reasons. one, i really wonder about the severity of those winds. my gosh, the trees that were taken down. we're not talking about a limb that should have been cut and it happened to brush across a line. we're talking about trees from across the street coming down and taking a power line down on the other side of the street. >> even more surprising, he says, was just how unprepared some utilities seemed to be. >> some of the utilities involved didn't really have a good what's called "outage management system." there were utilities in the northeast that actually had to do this with paper charts on a wall and didn't really have an effective computer system. >> on top of that, gellings says, is the nation's aging electrical infrastructure. >> even major components, take, for example, these large transformers, we call them substation transformers. these

the president wants to fix bridges, roads, and power grids.ny the president tips his hat to, siemens usa at the heart of the infrastructure. ceo and president talking to us exclusively about the repair work and what it means for jobs in this country. plus, making money in real estate investment trust without any of the exposure to the gyrations of the stock market. a ceo who runs one of the top private funds in the u.s. it is a fox business exclusive. and will today be the day? will the dow take at its all-time high "countdown to the closing bell" begins right now. ♪ liz: looks like we might get there, but hi, everybody. i'm liz claman. the last hour of trading. selling started to pick up. stocks are trading near session lows. the nasdaq has lost a lot of the steam that it had earlier taking a look at the dow jones industrials to lower by 62 points, though of the session down 64, one and a half% from its all-time highs. that, of course, is the number that goes back to october in 2007. the s&p 500 can't make any of the green state down about tw

he said what he called enemies are trying to sabotage the power grid, financial institutions and air traffic control systems. obama signed a new executive order to strengthen cyber defenses. officials said last year that the number of cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure has risen dramatical dramatically. they reported 198 cases in 2011. only nine two years earlier. >>> japanese and chinese officials have not seen eye to eye over the past few months but two diplomats have found some common ground. they agreed to cooperate on the nuclear program in north korea. shinsuke met in beijing with a special envoy for korean peninsula wu dawei. north korean scientists conducted a nuclear test last week. he said the test and rocket launch in december cannot be condoned. he asked chinese officials in pyongyang to exercise greater restraint. >> japan has high expectations for china's role because of its close political and economic ties with the north. >> he said that they agreed to improved communication and cooperation. he said the chinese is taking a stern view of north korea's nucl