After the northeast blackout I was told by a poster in this forum that such hacking was “impossible”.
This is the work of foreign nationals (think: China, Russia, Iran, etc.). These are all military dry runs. Just like nations test nukes for data in the event one is needed, so too these nations are probing and testing our electrical infrastructure in the event of some hostility.
Think about it, if the US were at war, or at some military action, a nation that could cripple our grid could cause serious damage without firing a shot, losing a soldier, or risking hardware.
A one-front, or two-front war suddenly becomes a very complex multi-front war both abroad and domestically, but yet our really smart people refuse to harden our grid.
The real question is why is the grid accessible from the web at all? Which fools decided to use the web? The grid worked just fine for decades before the web even existed.
I used to have this argument when I was at DoD. If you aren’t on the net you can’t be hacked.
Isn’t Symantec a Chinese owned company?
KYPD
What’s that Boy Scout motto?
I used to work in the industry. Utilities that are smart will never connect operations with the internet.
Operators would find it convenient to open a valve or start a pump from their home, but they are forced to drive to the control room often many miles to do so. This is the only way to ensure safety from hackers.
However some utilities think they can build safe bulletproof VPN style remote access to plant controls. They are fools.
I used to work in the industry. Utilities that are smart will never connect operations with the internet.
Operators would find it convenient to open a valve or start a pump from their home, but they are forced to drive to the control room often many miles to do so. This is the only way to ensure safety from hackers.
However some utilities think they can build safe bulletproof VPN style remote access to plant controls. They are fools.
Airgaps are pretty good defenses to hacking.