I fly out tomorrow as part of a DHS team that will investigate a SCADA attack that contaminated the Des Plaines River in Illinois. The state police hauled in a local 15 year old hacker for questioning, and he quickly confessed to the crime. His confession will make my job easier.

Unfortunately, I hear the city police ruined some of the key evidence by fiddling around with the kid's computer before the state police forensic cyber pathologist got there. If we lose our chain of evidence, the result is that this kid might actually get off with a slap on the wrist for destroying portions of the Des Plaines River.

The child may be a local, but this SCADA attack probably could have been done by anyone. I know some people will say "the river is dead whether or not a terrorist attacked it," but the truth of the matter is that we're lucky a terrorist didn't do this. Terrorists, like teenage hackers, want to do as much damage as they possibly can.