Computer Tech Shows the DHS Just How Easy It Is to Breach the Security of the Power Grid
by: Daisy Luther
TheOrganicPrepper.ca
April 18, 2014
When the mainstream news warns of an event that is high on every prepper’s list of concerns, it might be time to double up on your efforts to be ready for it.
Again, the vulnerability of our power grid is in the news. This time, the threat is hackers. The LA Times published an article highlighting how alarmingly simple it was for a guy in North Carolina to breach the online security of American power stations.
Adam Crain assumed that tapping into the computer networks used by power companies to keep electricity zipping through transmission lines would be nearly impossible in these days of heightened vigilance over cybersecurity.
When he discovered how wrong he was, his work sent Homeland Security Department officials into a scramble.
Crain, the owner of a small tech firm in Raleigh, N.C., along with a research partner, found penetrating transmission systems used by dozens of utilities to be startlingly easy. After they shared their discovery with beleaguered utility security officials, the Homeland Security Department began sending alerts to power grid operators, advising them to upgrade their software.
The alerts haven’t stopped because Crain keeps finding new security holes he can exploit.
“There are a lot of people going through various stages of denial” about how easily terrorists could disrupt the power grid, he said. “If I could write a tool that does this, you can be sure a nation state or someone with more resources could.” (source)
The Rest…HERE
