#EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE 5.5 #KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
Depth: 35 km
Distances: 1189 km S of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 09:58:25.4 2019-06-17
852 km NE of Whakatane, New Zealand / pop: 18,700 / local time: 08:58:25.4 2019-06-17
 |
 |
Freak #Tornado Sends Bouncy Castle Flying In #Yorkshire, #UK
Two bouncy castles were sent flying in a freak ‘tornado’ in YorkshireCredit: Magnus News
A THREE-year-old girl was among four injured when a freak “tornado” sent two bouncy castles flying in a Yorkshire park today.
Toilets were blown over and branches fell from trees as the wind lifted a bouncy castle and inflatable slide 30ft into the air.
Children could be heard screaming in the video as panicked families were forced to flee the scene alongside hundreds of attendees.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service said four people had been taken to hospital including the three-year-old, whose injuries are not believed to be serious.
Two other patients were taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, but the ambulance service was unable to say what their injuries were.
A fourth person was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary.
Thankfully it appears no kids were on the bouncy castle when the gust of wind hit.
Violent #Thunderstorm And #Hailstorm Pounds SE #France
Firefighters in France’s southeastern Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region have been inundated with hundreds of emergency calls after a violent hail storm pounded nine departments on Saturday afternoon. In Haute-Savoie, a woman was killed by a falling tree.
The 51 year-old German woman was killed when a tree fell on her caravan parked at a campground in Taninges in Haute-Savoie.
Elsewhere in Savoie, the storm caused flooding and some material damage. The firefighters were called out to assist at least 30 times.
Several trees fell on SNCF train lines, in particular between Chambéry and Montmélian.Police opened a nearby gymnasium for people to shelter as they waited out the delays.
The departments of Haute-Savoie along with Haute-Loire, Loire, Rhône, Drôme, l’Ardèche, l’Ain, l’Isère, and Savoie were placed on an ‘orange’ storm warning category which was lifted late afternoon on Saturday.
France’s agricultural minister Didier Guillaume announced on Sunday that a natural disaster zone would be declared in the coming hours.
“The zone will be outlined in the coming 48 hours,” Guillaume told France Info, referring to the damage in the Drome area.
Firefighters were called some 200 times to assist people in the area around the town of Romans-sur-Isère, where farmers were particularly affected by the storm.
A dozen people were treated for minor injuries and 2,300 households were left without electricity until the evening.
“It was apocalyptic,” Marie-Hélène Thoravaldes, mayor of the town, told France Info.
The bad weather also struck western Switzerland on Saturday afternoon, bringing hail and winds reaching up to 110 km/h, according to the national forecaster MeteoSwiss.
A woman drowned in Lake Geneva when her sightseeing boat sank, police said.
A man who was in the same boat was able to swim to another vessel from where he fired “two flares”, Joanna Matta, police spokeswoman for the canton (region) of Geneva, told AFP.
The victim, whose nationality remains unknown, was then taken to a hospital in Geneva where she was declared dead.
In a separate incident, the storm also damaged some of the 465 boats taking part in the 81st edition of the Bol d’Or, an annual regatta on Lake Geneva, the event’s press service said.
Courtesy of en.rfi.fr
This ‘most dangerous’ #hacking group is now probing #PowerGrids
Hackers that tried to interfere with the safety systems of an industrial plant are now looking at power utilities too.
A hacking group described at the ‘most dangerous threat’ to industrial systems has taken a close interest in power grids in the US and elsewhere, according to a security company.
The hacking group believed to be behind the attack on the industrial control systems (ICS) of a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia are now apparently probing more potential victims around the world including US power grids according to security company Dragos.
“The most dangerous threat to ICS has new targets in its sights,” Dragos said. “This expansion to a new vertical illustrates a trend that will likely continue for other ICS-targeting adversaries.”
This particular hacking group is notable because of one incident it was involved with. In late 2017 it was revealed that hackers had infected the industrial control systems of a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia with malware – known as Triton or Trisis – which was designed to interfere with industrial safety systems.
The malware targeted the systems which controlled the emergency shutdown capabilities, and security companies warned that the attackers were developing the capability to cause physical damage and potentially shutdown operations. At the time analysts warned the activity was consistent with a nation state preparing for an attack; later analysis by security company FireEye linked the malware to a Russian state owned research lab.
In April, FireEye also said the same malware had been discovered on systems at another, unnamed company. And now Dragos has warned that the group behind the malware – which is calls Xenotime – has been probing US and Asia-Pacific power networks after previously focusing only on oil and gas.
“Starting in late 2018, Xenotime began probing the networks of electric utility organizations in the US and elsewhere using similar tactics to the group’s operations against oil and gas companies,” Dragos said.
Dragos said the 2017 attack on the Saudi Arabian oil and gas facility represented an escalation of attacks on ICS because the malware targeted safety systems and was designed to cause loss of life or physical damage. The company said that since that attack the hacking group has expanded its operations to include oil and gas firms outside the Middle East and said the group compromised several ICS vendors and manufacturers in 2018.
Dragos said that since 2017 the hacking group’s activities have included significant external scanning and research on potential victims and attempts at external access focused on North American and European companies.
In February this year, Dragos said, it spotted attempts to gather information associated with US and Asia-Pacific electric utilities.
“This behavior could indicate the activity group was preparing for a further cyberattack,” the company said. Dragos said it had seen attempts to use lists of previously stolen usernames and passwords to try and force entry into target accounts. But it also said that none of the electric utility targeting events has resulted in a successful intrusion.
Dragos said that evidence of this group’s interest in electric utility operations is “a cause for deep concern given this adversary’s willingness to compromise process safety.”
The security company said most of the activity by the hacking group focuses on initial information gathering and access operations necessary for follow-on ICS intrusion operations and future attacks. But it also said there is no evidence indicating that this group is actually capable of executing a disruptive or destructive attack on electric utility operations
Dragos said that organisations running industrial control systems should prepare for potential breach and disruption scenarios. It said the most important thing a security team can do is improve their awareness of ICS network activity. Companies should also have worked on scenarios that deal with the potential loss of safety instrumented systems integrity, like having incident response teams on call and configuration and process data both for comparison to possible compromised devices, and aid recovery in the event of a breach.
“ICS operators must address such concerns in advance, rather than trying to figure out such sensitive, complex items mid- or post-intrusion,” Dragos warned.
Threats to industrial control systems – the infrastructure which runs everything from power grids to factories and rail networks – are on the rise, according to security experts. “More capable adversaries are investing heavily in the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure like oil and gas, electric power, water, and more,” said Dragos.
Written By By Steve Ranger At zdnet.com
#EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE 4.7 #PAKISTAN
Depth: 10 km
Distances:
97 km NE of Peshāwar, Pakistan / pop: 1,219,000 / local time: 17:39:08.1 2019-06-1649 km N of Swābi, Pakistan / pop: 97,400 / local time: 17:39:08.1 2019-06-16
24 km S of Mingāora, Pakistan / pop: 228,000 / local time: 17:39:08.1 2019-06-16
 |
 |
#Temperatures Could Reach 50C Across #Desert Areas in #Oman
Over the coming days, temperatures in the desert areas and areas west of the Hajar Mountains will continue to rise between 46C and 49C.
It could reach 50C over parts of the desert areas.
‘Massive’ #PowerOutage hits #Argentina, #Uruguay, Paraguay and southern #Brazil
Millions of people across Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil were left without power early on Sunday after a massive power failure in the electrical interconnection system, according to reports by the energy company Edesur Argentina.
#EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE 6.3 #KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
Depth: 27 km
Distances:
1147 km S of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 18:17:15.1 2019-06-16872 km NE of Whangarei, New Zealand / pop: 50,900 / local time: 17:17:15.1 2019-06-16
 |
 |
#EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE 2.0 LONG VALLEY AREA, #CALIFORNIA, #USA
Depth: 5 km
Distances:
403 km N of Los Angeles, United States / pop: 3,793,000 / local time: 20:53:03.8 2019-06-15185 km SE of Carson City, United States / pop: 55,300 / local time: 20:53:03.8 2019-06-15
94 km E of Mariposa, United States / pop: 2,200 / local time: 20:53:03.8 2019-06-15
5 km E of Mammoth Lakes, United States / pop: 8,300 / local time: 20:53:03.8 2019-06-15
 |
 |
Please Donate To Support My Work
Earth Extremities 
Comments