Hackers Breached A Dozen Power Plants In May – Could Be A Dry Run For Something Bigger
Mac Slavo
July 10th, 2017
SHTFplan.com
t may only be a matter of time before the power grid in the United States, which is far more vulnerable to hacking than most people realize, suffers from a catastrophic cyber attack. We know this, because there is already evidence that unknown hackers have been targeting companies that run power plants throughout the country. According to the FBI and Homeland Security, in May hackers made their way into computer systems related to a dozen power plants, including the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant in Kansas.
However, it doesn’t appear that any damage was done, and the hackers didn’t gain access to the controls for the power plants. They only infiltrated systems that were “limited to administrative and business networks.” So what were these hackers going after? According to the experts, these cyber attacks may have been a dry run for a future attack that could have a far more devastating effect.
The intruders could be positioning themselves to eventually disrupt the nation’s power supply, warned the officials, who noted that a general alert was distributed to utilities a week ago. Adding to those concerns, hackers recently infiltrated an unidentified company that makes control systems for equipment used in the power industry, an attack that officials believe may be related.
The chief suspect is Russia, according to three people familiar with the continuing effort to eject the hackers from the computer networks. One of those networks belongs to an aging nuclear generating facility known as Wolf Creek — owned by Westar Energy Inc., Great Plains Energy Inc. and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc. — on a lake shore near Burlington, Kansas.
The possibility of a Russia connection is particularly worrisome, former and current officials say, because Russian hackers have previously taken down parts of the electrical grid in Ukraine and appear to be testing increasingly advanced tools to disrupt power supplies.
Though the government thinks Russia is responsible, they have yet to find any proof linking the attack to any particular nation (gee, where have we heard that before?). Regardless of who is responsible, these cyber attacks have some alarming traits.
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