Private experts advised US on cyberattacks against Libya, study says

Private computer experts advised US officials on how cyberattacks could damage Libya's oil and gas infrastructure and rob Moammar Gadhafi's regime of crucial oil revenue, according to a study obtained by hackers.

It remains unclear who commissioned "Project Cyber Dawn" and how much of a role the US government played in it, but it shows the increasing amount of work being done by private companies in exposing foreign governments' vulnerabilities to cyberattack. "For the private sector to be making recommendations ... that's a level of ambition that you would not have seen until very recently," said Eli Jellenc, a cybersecurity expert with VeriSign who is not linked to the study or its authors. The study outlined ways to disable the coastal refinery at Ras Lanouf using a computer virus similar to the Stuxnet worm that led to a breakdown in Iran's enrichment program late last year. It catalogued several pieces of potentially exposed computer hardware used at the refinery. The study was discussed in some of nearly 1,000 e-mails stolen by hacking group Lulz Security from Delaware-based Internet surveillance firm Unveillance as part of an effort to show how vulnerable data can be. Most of the e-mails detail the day-to-day trivia of running a small technology startup, but others concern an effort to scout out vulnerabilities in Gadhafi's electronic infrastructure.