Story here (Fox News)

Apparently a several foreign countries have had there power grids shut down and held for ransom by hackers. Scary. I sent the link up to my brother, he's in charge of power grids up in Alaska and may have an insiders view of this.

-Blast

Here is my brother's reply:

"Thanks for the link. I sent it on to the other engineers here.

The article lacks much detail, but hacking into power grid control equipment is definitely a concern. Our control center used to be entirely hard wired to the substation control centers, but as technology has progress we are starting to use more and more local internet (intranet) connections. They all have multiple security features but if there is someone on the inside, like the article mentions, then they might be able to open up the network to the outside and allow hackers in.

We are a bit slow to replace our technology, but other larger utilities probably have made more use of intranet for their control functions. It is definitely a concern, and I expect that most utilities have active security in place to try to prevent any hacking. As with any computer security though, there may be a loophole or some access that the system operators don’t know about that the hackers can exploit. Just like taking out a big internet site, I’m sure a hacker would love to be able to take credit for shutting down a city."

In other words, "Yep, it's possible."

-Blast

I can't understand why power grids (etc) are tied into the internet at all. Why would they need to be? Why would they WANT to be?

I just googled news info on power grids and hackers, and the only things that came up were a very few like the one cited above. Our CIA is passing out the info that SOME power grid in SOME foreign country was hacked into. So why wasn't it news in that country or surrounding countries?

Watch their OTHER hand....

Sue

It saves money.

-Blast

I thought you guys were supposed to be smart.

1) Fox news is not renowned for its impartial and cogent reportage.
2) The article was not an investigative report by Fox news, it was a regurgitation of some material from the CIA.
3) No facts were stated, therefore these stories cannot be independently verified: 'Donahue did not specify what countries were affected, when the outages occurred or how long the outages lasted. He said they happened in "several regions outside the United States."'

In other words, what was the point of the article, and what was the point of bringing it up?

A

Ame,

The article alerted me to a possible threat. I then contacted an expert in the power grid who confirmed that the threat is real.

You know, I once saw a a news report on Fox about possible hurricane dangers to Houston, but thanks to you I now know I can ignore that possibility. Thanks!

-Blast

Izzy,

Thanks for reminding me about Estonia. California's power grid was also attacked but the hackers failed.

Of course, the report was on CNN and we know how biased they are.

-Blast

Humm...
No city named, no country mentioned, only one news organization reporting...I think I'll focus on a more realistic threat, like waking up in a bathtub full of ice and no kidney.

Bisc.

Um, what, are Estonia and California are imaginary places? Okay, I've never been to Estonia but have been to a place where the car license plates said "California".

But hey, to each there own. Personally, I'm not too worried about bird flu, Nalgene bottles, peak oil, genetically modified foods, capitalism or global climate change.

-Blast

I'd bet two things 1) They are referring to the NE blackout that crippled a good chunk of North America. It also hit Britain, Sidney and several other major cities in series.

2) They are not being honest when they say the internet was used (unless it was those Governments doing it to themselves).


Why would they even mention it? What is the solution they propose? Take the grid off the internet or during the next emergency 'Temporarily shutdown the internet to protect the infrastructure'?


-NIM

P.S. I must be getting jaded. This thing screams psyop/military."