02/20/10

At DarkReading

Spike In Power Grid Attacks Likely In Next 12 Months

 
'Window of opportunity for malicious intent' as energy firms roll out smart-grid pilot programs

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading


Attacks against the power grid are likely to rise and intensify during the next 12 months as smart grid research and pilot projects advance, according to utility security experts and a recently published report that analyzes threats to critical infrastructure.

The so-called Project Grey Goose Report on Critical Infrastructure points to state and/or non-state sponsored hackers from the Russian Federation of Independent States, Turkey, and China as the main threats to targeting and hacking into energy providers and other critical infrastructure networks.

Jeffrey Carr, principal investigator for Project Grey Goose and founder and CEO of GreyLogic, says he and other researchers working on the report initially focused on answering the question of whether there have been any successful cyberattacks on the utilities. "Some companies say there's never been a successful attack against the grid, but that's not true," he says. "There have been at least 120 instances" of successful attacks, some of which are documented in the report and date back to 2001.

Read the whole story at www.darkreading.com.

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And don't worry, the Power Grid is being guarded 24/7 by the same people who prevent illegal aliens from crossing our borders and keep terrorists off of our airplanes. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. However, WalMart has a sale on flashlights and batteries this week.

Janet "Naps" Napolitano