US power grid has been ‘attacked at least 12 times by foreign hackers stealing plans so detailed they could knock out electricity to millions of American homes’
The grid is subject to being hacked from abroad, and foreign hackers have gained remote access to American power operations about a dozen times
The AP investigation began when security researcher Brian Wallace discovered that hackers, likely in Iran, had exploited a vulnerability
Hackers broke into networks running the U.S. power grid and had stolen passwords and engineering drawings of a number of power plants
At least one of the documents was stamped ‘Mission Critical’
The drawings were so detailed that experts say skilled attackers could have used them, to knock out electricity flowing to millions of homes
Knowledge about these breaches has been kept from the public
Information about the government’s response to the hacks is protected, sometimes classified and often not reported
Countries and organizations thought to be targeting U.S. power grids include Russia, China, Iran and ISIS
DailyMail.com
22 December 2015
Security researcher Brian Wallace was on the trail of hackers who had snatched a California university’s housing files when he stumbled into a larger nightmare: Cyberattackers had opened a pathway into the networks running the United States power grid.
Digital clues pointed to Iranian hackers. And Wallace found that they had already taken passwords, as well as engineering drawings of dozens of power plants, at least one with the title ‘Mission Critical.’ The drawings were so detailed that experts say skilled attackers could have used them, along with other tools and malicious code, to knock out electricity flowing to millions of homes.
Wallace was astonished. But this breach, The Associated Press has found, was not unique.
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