Hackers attacking foreign electric utilities

Washington Post:

In a rare public warning to the power and utility industry, a CIA analyst this week said cyber attackers have hacked into the computer systems of utility companies outside the United States and made demands, in at least one case causing a power outage that affected multiple cities.

"We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet," Tom Donahue, the CIA's top cybersecurity analyst, said Wednesday at a trade conference in New Orleans.

Donahue's comments were "designed to highlight to the audience the challenges posed by potential cyber intrusions," CIA spokesman George Little said. The audience was made up of 300 U.S. and international security officials from the government and from electric, water, oil and gas companies, including BP, Chevron and the Southern Co.

"We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of the attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge," Donahue said. He did not specify where or when the attacks took place, their duration or the amount of money demanded. Little said the agency would not comment further.

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Over the past year to 18 months, there has been "a huge increase in focused attacks on our national infrastructure networks, . . . and they have been coming from outside the United States," said Ralph Logan, principal of the Logan Group, a cybersecurity firm.

It is difficult to track the sources of such attacks, because they are usually made by people who have disguised themselves by worming into three or four other computer networks, Logan said. He said he thinks the attacks were launched from computers belonging to foreign governments or militaries, not terrorist groups.

Over the past 10 years, electric utilities, pipelines, railroads and oil companies have used remotely controlled and monitored valves, switches and other mechanisms. This has resulted in substantial savings in man power and other costs.

But to do that, the companies have installed wireless Internet connections to link the devices to central offices.

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My speculation is that it is the Chinese who are responsible. This would be consistent with their strategy of making the US and its allies blind by taking out satellites and attacking the electrical grid could also make the command and control of our forces more difficult. Novels about terrorist attacks sometimes suggest such attacks on infrastructure to make it more difficult to respond to an attack, but most terrorist are not that sophisticated. The Chinese definitely are.