Romney projected to win Nevada GOP caucuses

CNN projects Mitt Romney as the winner of Saturday’s Republican caucuses in Nevada, based on entrance polls and early returns.

Romney was cruising with 55 percent of the vote in early returns, but a dogfight was on for second place.

Romney issued a statement Saturday afternoon.

“Today, the people of Nevada voted for change in Washington. For far too long, our leaders have promised to take the action necessary to build a stronger America, and still the people of Nevada and all across this country are waiting.

“Whether it is reforming health care, making America energy independent or securing the border, the American people have been promised much and are now ready for change,” the statement said.

At the same early stage, Sen. John McCain and Rep. Ron Paul were in a close race for second place, ahead of former Sen. Fred Thompson.

Also on Saturday, Republicans were voting in a primary election in South Carolina, where results were expected to come in later.

The two contests could propel two candidates to front-runner status and winnow the field in this year’s wide-open presidential races.

-from CNN.com

CIA Says Hackers Have Cut Power Grid

Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week.

Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong.

Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.

“We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands,” he said in a statement posted to the Web on Friday by the conference’s organizers, the SANS Institute. “In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet.”

“According to Mr. Donahue, the CIA actively and thoroughly considered the benefits and risks of making this information public, and came down on the side of disclosure,” SANS said in the statement.

One conference attendee said the disclosure came as news to many of the government and industry security professionals in attendance. “It appeared that there were a lot of people who didn’t know this already,” said the attendee, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with the press.

He confirmed SANS’ report of the talk. “There were apparently a couple of incidents where extortionists cut off power to several cities using some sort of attack on the power grid, and it does not appear to be a physical attack,” he said.

-from PCWorld.com