Destructive hacking attempts target critical infrastructure in Americas -survey

By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hacking attacks that destroy rather than steal data or that manipulate equipment are far more prevalent than widely believed, according to a survey of critical infrastructure organizations throughout North and South America. Those figures are all the more remarkable because only 60 percent of the 575 respondents said they had detected any attempts to steal data, long considered the predominant hacking goal. By far the best known destructive hacking attack on U.S. soil was the electronic assault last year on Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Entertainment, which wiped data from the Hollywood fixture’s machines and rendered some of its internal networks inoperable. The outcry over that breach, joined by President Barack Obama, heightened the perception that such destruction was an unusual extreme, albeit one that has been anticipated for years.

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