#michael hultquist

[morehorror]

This is the trailer for my micro-budget horror film Blood Harvest (2023). It's available now on Prime Video and Vudu. I co-wrote the original story, co-produced and composed the music for the film.

This was a labor of love that started over 10 years ago from an idea I had based on some personal experiences. The film suffers from some technical sound issues that sadly weren't corrected in post production. They are pretty noticable. Also some of my score is difficult to hear in parts, again, some major sound issues that I'm a bit astounded were not corrected or caught in post production by the film editor. But aside from that, actually getting a film made and distributed in Hollywood is a huge accomplishment. People don't realize how difficult it is to get a movie made and released. I'm very proud that we were able to do that.

This trailer also features a song by my industrial metal band Brain Matter, "Fractured Reality" (starting at 44 seconds). Listen to the full song here.

So, if you feel like popping Blood Harvest on in the background and supporting indie horror, give it watch!

Blood Harvest

Director: Danny LeGare

Writers: Michael Hultquist, Danny LeGare, Seth Metoyer

Stars: Jason London, Robert LaSardo, Greg Nutcher, Eva Hamilton

Executive Producer: James Cullen Bressack

Producer: Jarrett Furst

Co-Producer: Seth Metoyer

Distributor: Uncork'd Entertainment

Music By: Seth Metoyer

[moviesandmania]

BLOOD HARVEST Free on Amazon Prime, Freevee, Tubi, Vudu and YouTube

‘This town doesn’t like visitors’ Blood Harvest is a 2023 American horror film in which a family moves back to a farm in their mother’s hometown. One of the children is a clairvoyant and along with his sister, they start to unravel secrets that have happened on the farm. The movie was directed by Danny LeGare from a screenplay co-written with Michael Hultquist and Seth Metoyer. The Black Hole…

[babadork]

12 Feet Deep (2016)

[byneddiedingo]

Rosaline (Karen Maine, 2022)

Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Sean Teale, Kyle Allen, Spencer Stevenson, Bradley Whitford, Christopher McDonald, Minnie Driver, Nico Hiraga. Screenplay: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, based on a novel by Rebecca Serle. Cinematography: Laurie Rose. Production design: Andrew McAlpine. Film editing: Jennifer Lee. Music: Drum & Lace, Ian Hultquist. 

Rosaline is an amusing trifle, an exercise in parashakespeare like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard, 1990) or Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1998), though I'm sure neither screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber nor Rebecca Serle, the author of the book on which Rosaline is based, would be eager to invite comparison with Stoppard's erudition and wit. In Romeo and Juliet, Rosaline is only a plot device: Juliet's cousin, with whom Romeo is infatuated, she's never seen in the play, but serves only, via the teasing of his friends, to emphasize Romeo's bent toward romantic ardor. The film casually turns the play on its head, converting tragedy into rom-com, as Kaitlyn Dever's Rosaline gets her revenge on Romeo's fickleness by trying to make him fall out of love with Juliet. Dever is a fine comic actress, and she gets good support from the rest of the cast. Kyle Allen, looking a bit like Heath Ledger in another parashakespearean movie, 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999), plays Romeo as a lovestruck goof. His Juliet (Isabela Merced) is a faux naïf from the country, who manages to get the upper hand on the manipulative Rosaline. (There's a mid-credits scene at the end that suggests things will not go smoothly for Romeo and Juliet after they escape Verona by means of a fake death.) Bradley Whitford plays Rosaline's father, determined to marry off his independent-minded daughter. After a series of superannuated suitors whom Rosaline manages to scare off, he comes up with the handsome young Dario (Sean Teale), whom she initially rejects, but everyone who has ever seen a rom-com knows she will eventually fall for. There are nice comic bits from Spencer Stevenson as Paris, Rosaline's gay best friend who gets roped into an engagement with Juliet, and Nico Hiraga as Steve the Courier, a stoner who delivers -- or fails to deliver -- the crucial messages that in the original play would precipitate tragedy. And while Juliet's nurse plays a key role in Shakespeare, she's only a bit part in the movie. Instead, there's Minnie Driver as Rosaline's nurse, indignantly insisting that she's a trained registered nurse, not a babysitter. The screenplay wisely jettisons any attempt to evoke Shakespearean language and adopts contemporary speech that jars amusingly with the period setting and costumes. Director Karen Maine keeps all this fluff nicely airborne. 

[lokiondisneyplus]

Nominees for this year’s ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards have been announced, with scores for films like “Dune” and “The Power of the Dog,” TV series like “Loki” and “The White Lotus” and video games like “Call of Duty” among the contenders.

These competitive awards, voted on by members of ASCAP, will be given out during the week of May 2 as part of the 2022 ASCAP Screen Music Awards, alongside the non-voted honors that reward the composers of the most-performed scores and themes of the year.

Up for film score of the year are Hans Zimmer, for “Dune”; Germaine Franco, for “Encanto”; Daniel Hart, for “The Green Knight”; Dan Romer, for “Luca”; and Radiohead member-turned-maestro Jonny Greenwood for “The Power of the Dog.”

Zimmer, Franco and Greenwood have already been nominated for the Academy Awards this month for their work on those films.

Nods for television score went to Michael Abels, for “Allen v. Farrow”; the team of Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, for the third season of “Cobra Kai”; another team — Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist — for seasons 2 and 3 of “Dickinson” (both seasons fell into the calendar-year-2021 time frame); Natalie Holt for “Loki”; Lorne Balfe for “Wheel of Time”; and Cristobal Tapia de Veer for “The White Lotus.”

The performing rights organization became the first of the PROs to have its members vote on competitive honors, starting in 2014.

Last year’s winners included “Soul,” “Lovecraft Country,” “The Last of Us Part II,” “Tales from the Loop” and ““David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet.”

---

Two nominations for Natalie Holt!!

TELEVISION SCORE OF THE YEAR (Episodes originally airing in the US in 2021)

Allen v. Farrow – Michael Abels Cobra Kai season 3 – Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson Dickinson seasons 2 & 3 – Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist Loki – Natalie Holt Wheel of Time – Lorne Balfe The White Lotus – Cristobal Tapia de Veer

TELEVISION THEME OF THE YEAR (Episodes originally airing in the US in 2021)

Allen v. Farrow – Michael Abels Dickinson – Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist Loki – Natalie Holt Only Murders in the Building – Siddhartha Khosla The White Lotus – Cristobal Tapia de Veer

[cushfuddled]

An instrumental playlist for The Magnus Archives

S1

The Archivist - Reeder ▪ The Institute - Jesse Case ▪ Spider - Michael Abels ▪ Archives - Laurent Petitgirard ▪ Statement - Keith Kenniff ▪ A Pot Of Tea - Jerry Goldsmith ▪ Poetry - Maurizio Bignone ▪ The Hive - Jon Ekstrand ▪ The Worms - Mickymar Productions ▪ Doing Nothing Terrifies Me - Hans Zimmer ▪ There Will Be No Mysteries - James Newton Howard ▪ Eyes - Peter Peter ▪ Tracked and Hunted - Paul Haslinger ▪ The Tunnels Below - Will Vernon ▪ Sasha - Mark Smythe 

S2-3

The Door - Hildur Guðnadóttir ▪ The Spiral - Kreng ▪ His Name Was Michael - Jeff Beal ▪ Looking for Answers - Karim Sebastian Elias ▪ Desolation - Jacob Renfield Boston ▪ The Vast - Ryan Taubert ▪ The Hunt - Jonny Greenwood ▪ Where Is Helen - Giacomo Trovaioli ▪ Circus - Robert Pilgram ▪ Elias - Ramin Djawadi ▪ Buried Alive ▪ Alex Crispin ▪ Unknowing - Layton&wood ▪ Sacrifice - Rob ▪ The End - Ryuichi Sakamoto ▪ Comatose - Brian Tyler ▪ And All the Tape Recorders of the World Will Never Hear My Voice the Way You Do - Ricky Eat Acid ▪ I Need You - Ian Hultquist ▪ The Choice - Jack Ritchie, Bearcubs

S4

They’re Dead - Ken Eberhard ▪ For Jonathan - The Album Leaf ▪ I Miss You - Triodust ▪ Finding Answers - Deborah Lurie ▪ Man of the Flesh - Rubert Gregson-Williams ▪ The Slaughter - Johan Soderqvist ▪ Nightmare - Danny Elfman ▪ The Eye - Aritz Villodas ▪ Man vs. Monster - Hans Lundgren ▪ The Fog - Seamus Egan ▪ Extinction - Henry Jackson ▪ I’m Lonely - Danny Mulhern ▪ Coffin - James Newton Howard ▪ The Dark - David García Díaz ▪ Human - Atticus Ross ▪ Poor Martin - Brian Bryne ▪ Promises, Promises - Nick Zinner ▪ The Beach - Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow ▪ Peter in the Fog - Stephan Zacharias ▪ Finding, Being Found - Reeder ▪ I See You - Tree Adams ▪ You Know the Way Out - Adam Cork ▪ Scotland - Paul Cantelon ▪ Open the Door - Lovett

S5

Comfort - Onn San ● The Cabin - Cliff Martinez ● The Quiet Before - Reeder ● Chrysalis - Darren Callahan ● Fire - Jed Kurzel ● Stepping Outside - Fernando Velázquez ● I Won’t Let Them Hurt You - Roque Baños ● Terrors in the Trenches - Light Return ● Phone Call - Marco Beltrami, Anna Dubich ● Bearing Contagion - Matt Linder ● Carousel of Nightmares - Desislava Kondova ● The Watcher - Robin Schlochtermeier ● Crawling Up - The Newton Brothers ● Annabelle - Thomas Newman ● Gertrude’s Requiem - Maxime Rouquart ● Betrayal - Joseph Trapanese ● Reason - Ja Wan Koo ● The End - Jeff Russo ● Oliver - Dominik Scherrer ● Into the Fire - Marco Beltrami ● Lost in Fog - Thomas Newman ● Do You Remember Who I Am? - Todd Boekelheide ● I Will Not Forget You - Max Richer ● Not Alone Anymore - Armand Amar ● Manipulation - Julie Buchanan ● Colossus - Laryssa Okada ● Extinction - Andrew Buresh ● I Think We’re Being Followed - David Joseph Wesley ● Hunter and Prey - Paul Haslinger ● Reunion - Todd Baker ● Sanctuary - Takeshi Furukawa ● Are You Sure? - Evan MacDonald ● Promise - Michael Vignola ● The Spider Has Played His Hand - Richard Hartley ● Burn It Down - Tom Howe, Harry Gregson-Williams ● Do It Together - Clinton Shorter ● I Love You - Miro Kepinski ● Mystery - Kevin T Doyle ● Good Luck - Nima Fakhrara ● Rewinding the Tape - Young Neighbors

Listen here 🎧

[lakeshorerecords]

5 Films/TV Shows For National Love Your Pet Day!

5 Films/TV Shows For National Love Your Pet Day!

For National Love Your Pet Day, it’s the perfect occasion to take a look at some film and television shows from Lakeshore soundtrack partners which feature some memorable pets. Are you a dog or cat person? How about a pet chicken or a baby demogorgon? See our list!

(more…)

[moaninmoonen]

12 Feet Deep (2017) = 3.1/5

Plot …...……. 3

Acting ……… 3

Production…. 3

Concept ..….. 3.5

“Two sisters are trapped.”

ENDirector: Matt EskandariWriters: Matt Eskandari, Michael HultquistStars: Nora-Jane Noone, Alexandra Park, Diane Farr | See full cast & crew »

[masryasely]

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Director Matt Eskandari Writers Matt Eskandari | Michael Hultquist Language English Country USA Release Date 20 June 2017 (USA) Filming Locations Los Angeles, California, USA Genres Horror | Thriller Stars Nora-Jane Noone | Alexandra Park IMDB Rating

StorylineJack Collins (Milo Gibson) is a war-junkie and former Navy SEAL turned bounty hunter who tracks down terrorists as part of the CIA's outsourcing to private companies. Battling personal demons, the powers that be think he is becoming a liability so his CIA handler Leigh (Sylvia Hoeks) offers him one last chance to keep fighting, sending him to London for a job. There, he finds himself part of a three-man team tasked with hunting down a disavowed CIA Operative called McKnight (Elliot Cowan) before he procures a WMD from Russian gangsters and disappears. Together, Collins, Brennan (William Fichtner) and Samuelson (Gbenga Akinnagbe) find themselves locked in urban tactical combat with a former colleague, Deighton (Joseph Millson), and his private army, hired by McKnight as protection. Both sides fight smart and as casualties and betrayal mounts on both sides, Collins refuses to be defeated as he battles his way to an explosive climax. StarsBen Chaplin | Ben Foster | Ben Gazzara | Ben Hardy | Beth Goddard | Bill Baldwin | Bill Milner | Billy Dee Williams | Bingbing Fan | Bobby Moore | Boyd Holbrook | Brett Morris

مشاهدة وتحميل أجمل الافلام العربية والعالمية على اكثر من سيرفر مشاهدة وتحميل أجمل المسلسلات العربية والعالمية مترجمة  والمدبلجة الى اللغة العربية على اكثر من سيرفر بجودة عالية مشاهدة و تحميل الافلام العربية  والاجنبية والعالمية الحديثة حصريآ على اكثر من سيرفر مشاهدة وتحميل مسلسل لوست جميع المواسم مترجم بجودة عالية على اكثر من سيرفر

مشاهدة الفيلم مترجم

أهم الشخصيات فى العمل

أهم الاعمال لبطل الفيلم

مشاركة الموضوع

via Aly Sayed Ali

[drawdownbooks]

Visual Strategies for the Apocalypse⁣ Available at www.draw-down.com ⁣ ⁣ A zine about overcoming what author (and graphic designer) Ian Lynam terms “Creative Constipation.” Lynam writes “The act of making can feel largely irrelevant, especially for those of us who make visual form professionally. Maybe you've felt this way, but quite possibly not. I wrote this booklet for those of us who have ever felt stuck, because somehow, it can feel like The Apocalypse... Doomsday. Ragnarok. Armageddon. (Or at least for me it has on occasion.)” Visual Strategies for the Apocalypse gets past that by examining why and how the visual form is defined and dealt with, as well as how we might re-engage ourselves with it. Topics include: the relationship between Big Tech and child labor; the even more complicated relationship between fast fashion and Thor, god of Thunder; space, time, and selfishness; contrast, cropping, and partying; chance processes; imitation, flattery, history, and desktop publishing; collage as strategy; the function of drawing; ornament, and making things up. With contributions from leading designers and design educators: Matthew Scott Barnes, Natalia Ilyin, Nikki Juen, Yoon Soo Lee, Matthew Monk, David Peacock, Michael Scaringe, and Lorena Howard-Sheridan, along with Laura Bernstein, James Chae, Taylor Giali, James Hultquist-Todd of JTD Type, James Edmondson of Oh No Type Co, visual artist Griffin McPartland, Adolf Loos and the late Koichi Sato.⁣ ⁣ #IanLynam #Creative #making #VisualStrategies⁣ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bypk1DFnYDt/?igshid=1nfn08jw6iewr

[cushfuddled]

An instrumental playlist for The Magnus Archives

The Archivist - Reeder ▪ The Institute - Jesse Case ▪ Spider - Michael Abels ▪ Archives - Laurent Petitgirard ▪ Statement - Keith Kenniff ▪ A Pot Of Tea - Jerry Goldsmith ▪ Poetry - Maurizio Bignone ▪ The Hive - Jon Ekstrand ▪ The Worms - Mickymar Productions ▪ Doing Nothing Terrifies Me - Hans Zimmer ▪ There Will Be No Mysteries - James Newton Howard ▪ Eyes - Peter Peter ▪ Tracked and Hunted - Paul Haslinger ▪ The Tunnels Below - Will Vernon ▪ Sasha - Mark Smythe ▪ The Door - Hildur Guðnadóttir ▪ The Spiral - Kreng ▪ His Name Was Michael - Jeff Beal ▪ Looking for Answers - Karim Sebastian Elias ▪ Desolation - Jacob Renfield Boston ▪ The Vast - Ryan Taubert ▪ The Hunt - Jonny Greenwood ▪ Where Is Helen - Giacomo Trovaioli ▪ Circus - Robert Pilgram ▪ Elias - Ramin Djawadi ▪ Buried Alive ▪ Alex Crispin ▪ Unknowing - Layton&wood ▪ Sacrifice - Rob ▪ The End - Ryuichi Sakamoto ▪ Comatose - Brian Tyler ▪ And All the Tape Recorders of the World Will Never Hear My Voice the Way You Do - Ricky Eat Acid ▪ I Need You - Ian Hultquist ▪ The Choice - Jack Ritchie, Bearcubs ▪ They’re Dead - Ken Eberhard ▪ For Jonathan - The Album Leaf ▪ I Miss You - Triodust ▪ Finding Answers - Deborah Lurie ▪ Man of the Flesh - Rubert Gregson-Williams ▪ The Slaughter - Johan Soderqvist ▪ Nightmare - Danny Elfman ▪ The Eye - Aritz Villodas ▪ Man vs. Monster - Hans Lundgren ▪ The Fog - Seamus Egan ▪ Extinction - Henry Jackson ▪ I’m Lonely - Danny Mulhern ▪ Coffin - James Newton Howard ▪ The Dark - David García Díaz ▪ Human - Atticus Ross ▪ Promises, Promises - Nick Zinner ▪ The Beach - Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow ▪ Peter in the Fog - Stephan Zacharias ▪ Finding, Being Found - Reeder ▪ I See You - Tree Adams ▪ You Know the Way Out - Adam Cork ▪ Scotland - Paul Cantelon ▪ Open the Door - Lovett

[moaninmoonen]

Life (2017) = 3.8/5

Plot …………. 3

Acting ……… 4

Production…. 4.5

Concept ..….. 3.5

“A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form” 

ENDirector: Daniel EspinosaWriters: Rhett Reese, Paul WernickStars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds | See full cast & crew » tt EskandariWriters: Matt Eskandari, Michael HultquistStars: Nora-Jane Noone, Alexan

[lifeofrichest-blog]

Michael Angelakos Net Worth, Know More About His Income

Net Worth: $1.5 Million

Michael Angelakos Net Worth:

Earnings: 2014: $800,000. 2015: $940,000. Michael Angelakos net worth is estimated at $1.5 million from the year 2017-2018. He is American Greek descent American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is a front man of indietronica band "Passion Pit". On July 2012, he posted on his website that their band has to cancel the remaining tour due to ongoing treatment of Angelakos for bipolar disorder. He was interested in musical instruments from the age of 5. Like many others, he became a professional singer when he fell in love with his girlfriend. In Emerson College, Angelakos wrote his first song for his girlfriend.  His real career was started with Passion Pit Songs which later becomes Chunk of Change. Before being professional, Angelakos used to write and perform on a laptop and did some solo shows where he found by Ian Hultquist who helped him to make a band. Read the full article

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/hard-hack-americas-energy-grid/

How hard is it to hack America's energy grid?

This year, we've been inundated with hackers in every aspect of our lives leaving many to wonder just how vulnerable our energy grid is here in the United States. Hackers likely linked to the North Korean government targeted a U.S. electricity company late last month, according to a security firm that says it detected and stopped the attacks. John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis for FireEye, said Wednesday that phishing emails were sent on Sept. 22 to executives at the energy company, which he declined to identify. The attacks didn’t threaten critical infrastructure. It’s the latest evidence of cyberespionage from various government-backed hackers targeting U.S. energy utilities, though experts say such attacks are often more about creating a psychological effect. COULD IT HAPPEN HERE? Concerns about hackers causing blackouts have grown since cyberattacks in Ukraine temporarily crippled its power grid in 2015 and 2016. But a “zombie apocalypse” scenario is unlikely in the United States, said Joe Slowik of Fulton, Maryland-based security firm Dragos, which has researched the attacks on the Ukrainian grid. “As a realistic scenario, it’s very faint,” he said. But, Slowik said, “somebody who is motivated and lucky enough” could cause significant harm. ISOLATING CONTROLS It’s easier to hack into emails and a front-end computer system than tap into industrial controls. That’s why, in theory, most energy companies isolate their regular workplace networks from high-security control rooms. The nuclear power industry, for good reason, is considered to be the best at such security practices. But some smaller and locally focused electricity providers fall short in creating an impenetrable wall around industrial controls, often referred to as an air gap. “There’s always some sort of a bridge, whether it’s a human being in their sneakers, or a wireless connection,” said Michael Daly, the chief technology officer for cybersecurity and missions at defense contractor Raytheon, based in Waltham, Massachusetts. “There’s no such thing as a totally air-gapped system.” GEOGRAPHY HELPS One thing protecting the U.S. electricity grid from a large-scale outage is that it’s segmented by region. Another thing is military might: Nation-state actors know that crossing the line from routine, long-term surveillance to a true attack on the grid could merit a powerful response. Neither of those means those protecting critical infrastructure are doing enough. “There are many reasons to target smart grids,” said Daly. “Nation-states can learn a lot by watching power usage.” Or they could lay in wait, he said, with the aim of one day pulling the trigger and targeting a grid’s customers by slowing down power or cutting it off completely. The latest attempted intrusion spotted by Milpitas, California-based FireEye was notable for its boldness, said Hultquist: The malefactors didn’t seem worried about being discovered. That’s a sign that even if foreign governments aren’t yet interested, or capable, of turning out the lights in New York or Los Angeles, they might at least want to signal that they’re thinking about it. Or they might be laying contingency plans to cause disruption in case of conflict. While it seems that every country is taking aim to send our country into a complete blackout, it's still not so easy to get inside the grid as we'll show you how hard the main three steps are to get inside.

Step One: Network Breach

When government agencies or the press warn that hackers have compromised a power utility, in the vast majority of cases those intruders haven't penetrated the systems that control the flow of actual power, like circuit breakers, generators, and transformers. They're instead hacking into far more prosaic targets: corporate email accounts, browsers, and web servers. Those penetrations, which typically start with spearphishing emails, or "watering hole" attacks that infect target users by hijacking a website they commonly visit, don't necessarily differ from traditional criminal or espionage-focused hacking. Most importantly, they don't generate the means of causing any physical damage or disruption. In some cases, the hackers may be performing reconnaissance for future attacks, but nonetheless don't get anywhere near the actual control systems that can tamper with electricity generation or transmission. Earlier this week, for instance, a leaked report from security firm FireEye raised alarms when it revealed that North Korean hackers had targeted US energy facilities. A followup report from security news site Cyberscoop asserted that at least one of those attempts successfully penetrated a US utility. But a subsequent FireEye blog post indicated that its analysts had only found evidence that the hackers had sent a series of spearphishing emails to its intended victims—a fairly routine hacking operation that doesn't appear to have come close to any sensitive control systems.

"We have not observed suspected North Korean actors using any tool or method specifically designed to compromise or manipulate the industrial control systems (ICS) networks that regulate the supply of power," FireEye's statement reads. "Furthermore, we have not uncovered evidence that North Korean-linked actors have access to any such capability at this time."

North Korea no doubt has ambitions to wield power over US grid systems, and the fact that they've taken the first step is significant. But for now those attacks—and any others that stop at the level of IT compromise—should be seen at worst as foreboding, rather than an imminent threat of hacker blackouts.

Step Two: Operational Access

Hackers poking around an energy firm's IT system should cause some concern. Hackers poking at operational technology systems, or what some security experts call OT, is a far more serious situation. When hackers penetrate OT, or gain so-called operational access, they've moved from the computer systems that exist in practically every modern corporation to the far more specialized and customized control systems for power equipment, a major step towards manipulating physical infrastructure.

In one recent hacking campaign, for instance, Symantec revealed that a group of hackers it named DragonFly 2.0—possibly the same Russian group reported earlier in the summer to have broken into a US nuclear facility—had gained operational access to a "handful" of US energy firms. The intruders had gone so far as to screenshot the so-called human-machine interfaces for power systems, likely so that they could study them, and prepare to start flipping actual switches to launch a full-on grid attack.

"Evidence of a phish attempt and probably infection is one step in a ladder," says Mike Assante, a power-grid security expert and instructor at the SANS Institute, a security-focused training organization. "Scrapes from an HMI is a few rungs up the access scale," Assante says, contrasting the recent North Korean phishing with the Dragonfly 2.0 attack.

In theory, OT systems are "air-gapped" from IT systems, with no network connections between the two. But with the exception of nuclear power plants, which strictly regulate their operational systems' disconnection from outside networks, that air-gap is often more permeable than it ought to be, says Galina Antova, a co-founder of the industrial control system security firm Claroty. She says that Claroty has never analyzed an industrial control facility's setup and not found a "trivial" way in to its OT systems. "Just by mapping the network, we can see the pathway from IT to OT," she says. "There are ways of getting in."

But Dragos' Lee counters that given the small proportion of hackers that actually do manage to cross that gap, it's hardly a trivial distinction. That's in part because while IT systems are somewhat standardized, OT systems are more customized and esoteric, making them far less familiar. "They can basically practice and train so that they can completely compromise IT networks," Lee says. "If they want to get to operations networks, it's going to be weird equipment and weird setups, and they're going to have to learn that."

Step Three: Coordinated Attack

Even when intruders have "hands-on-the-switches" access to grid control systems, Lee says, using that access effectively is far harder than it might seem. In fact, he argues that all actions ahead of flipping that switch are just a preparatory stage that represents only about 20 percent of the hackers' work.

Beyond the obscurity of whatever equipment setup a utility may have, Lee points out that its physical processes can require real expertise to manipulate, as well as months more effort and resources—not just opening a few circuit breakers to cause a blackout. Even after hackers gain access to those controls, "I can confidently say they’re still not at a stage to turn off the power," Lee says. "They could turn off some [circuit] breakers, but they’d have no understanding of the effect. They might be stopped by a safety system. They don’t know."

In the Ukrainian blackout of late 2015, the first-ever confirmed case of hackers causing a power outage, for instance, the intruders manually opened dozens of circuit breakers at three different facilities across the country, using remote access to electric distribution stations' control systems—in many cases by literally hijacking the mouse controls of the stations' operators. Analysts who responded to the attack believe it likely required months of planning and a team of dozens working in coordination. Even so, the blackout it caused lasted just six hours, for roughly a quarter-million Ukrainians.

Hackers essentially have to choose between the scope and duration of a blackout, Lee says. "If they wanted to do the full Eastern Interconnect, that’s exponentially more resources," he says, referring to the grid that covers nearly the full eastern half of the US. "And if they want to take it down for a full week, that’s an exponential of an exponential."

Some grid hackers do appear to be putting in the work to plan a wider, more disruptive operation. The second Ukrainian blackout attack used a piece of malware known as Crash Override, or Industroyer, capable of automating the process of sending sabotage commands to grid equipment, and built to be adapted to different countries' setups so that it could be deployed broadly across multiple targets.

That specimen of ultra-advanced grid hacking malware is troubling. But it's also extraordinarily rare. And there's a significant gap between a piece of Black Swan malware and the dozens number of grid-penetration incidents that often amount to little more than spearphishing. No power grid breach is a good thing. But better to recognize the difference between a dress rehearsal and the main event—especially when there are more of those events on the horizon.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[jennyroh]

Arena (2011)

Director: Jonah Loop Writers: Tony Giglio (screenplay), Michael Hultquist (original screenplay) & Robert Martinez (original screenplay) Cinematographer: Nelson Cragg Editors: Robert Berman & Harvey Rosenstock Production Designer: Tom Lisowski Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kellan Lutz, Johnny Messner, Katia Winter, Daniel Dae Kim, James Remar, and Nina Dobrev

Camera: Red One Camera

Filming Locations: Baton Rouge, Louisiana - USA

David Lord finds himself forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.

❤ 10% – If you like B-rated action films and Samuel L. Jackson movies, then maybe this is for you but it wasn't for me. 

(watched October 9, 2011)