US Escalating Persistent Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid

www.nytimes.com...

WASHINGTON — The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said. In interviews over the past three months, the officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets as a classified companion to more publicly discussed action directed at Moscow’s disinformation and hacking units around the 2018 midterm elections.

Had no idea this was going on. Apparently, neither did Trump. He would have never approved it, but he is mad at NYT for reporting it, rather than Deep State for doing (and still doing) it!

From the above except above the excuse is 'payback' for 'collusion' in the midterm elections. Collusion that most likely didn't even happen. So it makes sense deep state would be operating above executive law itself.

To what end?

This is happening everywhere has no one noticed the power outages and power plant fires and such all over the USA as well as other countries. I would doubt any leader anywhere is not aware of what they are all doing.

I don’t think so. It doesn’t take much of a thunder storm to cause an outage.

I have to admit that random power outages for the last 3-4 years have been a problem. They tend to happen when there is no storm and can last 30 secs to an hour +. Of cousre there are outages with storms but they seem to be rather infrequent which is odd b/c we've had some crazy storms.

a reply to: letni

Had no idea this was going on. Apparently, neither did Trump. He would have never approved it, but he is mad at NYT for reporting it, rather than Deep State for doing (and still doing) it!

He does indeed walk on water.

a reply to: letni

I wonder if russia is behind all the phone and internet outages we are seeing in the usa recently?

a reply to: letni

He would have never approved it

He knows about it now and has the power to stop it.
Has he stopped it? If not why not?

originally posted by: SeaWorthy
This is happening everywhere has no one noticed the power outages and power plant fires and such all over the USA as well as other countries. I would doubt any leader anywhere is not aware of what they are all doing.

Agreed. I don't think trump is as clueless and powerless about this as he is making it seem.

originally posted by: Nickn3
I don’t think so. It doesn’t take much of a thunder storm to cause an outage.

They are all testing what they can do and showing what they can do as a warning right now.
Cyber Disruption' Affected Parts Of U.S. Energy Grid
4:28
DOWNLOAD
TRANSCRIPT
May 4, 20197:52 AM ET
www.npr.org...

Constant arguing who is attacking who look it up it is everywhere and when you see an explosion in a power plant or other energy related most likely attacks. It has been going on for years and is escalating, they are all probing how to act without being attacked in return. The secret is to do it in such a way no one knows who is to blame.

The December 2015 Ukraine power grid cyberattack took place on 23 December 2015 and is considered to be the first known successful cyberattack on a power grid. Hackers were able to successfully compromise information systems of three energy distribution companies in Ukraine and temporarily disrupt electricity supply to the end consumers.

TECHNOLOGY NEWS JANUARY 7, 2016 / 4:20 PM / 3 YEARS AGO U.S. firm blames Russian 'Sandworm' hackers for Ukraine outage

www.reuters.com...

a reply to: letni

Yeah I really don't think we or Russia are committing act's of war by attacking each others power grids .

a reply to: Gargoyle91
Cyberattacks Put Russian Fingers on the Switch at Power Plants, U.S. Says

www.nytimes.com...
Cyberattacks Put Russian Fingers on the Switch at Power Plants, U.S. Says


Image

Background Attacking an adversary’s infrastructure is asymmetrical warfare. It causes a lot of damage for a very small cost. Cyberattacks are an ideal weapon as they disguise who might be behind them, making retaliation much harder. Attacks on the power grid for airports are especially devastating as they ground flights, stranding passengers and disrupting business nationwide.

Just take a look at recent power outages:
Dec 28, 2018: New York sky turns bright blue after transformer explosion.
Jun 13, 2018: Power outages at Las Vegas airport cause delays
Aug 16, 2018: Power restored at Reagan National after ‘airport wide’ outage
Nov 15, 2018: Power restored at Bradley International Airport following multiple outages
Dec 27, 2017: Power restored at Disneyland after outage halts rides
Dec 18, 2017: Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport restores power after crippling outage The New York Times reported in March 2018 of possible Russian cyberattacks on US power plants.

www.eenews.net...

Cyberattacks Make Smart Grids Look Pretty Dumb
An outage in South America is a reminder that connected devices can become easy entry points for hackers.
www.nytimes.com...

originally posted by: scraedtosleep

originally posted by: SeaWorthy
This is happening everywhere has no one noticed the power outages and power plant fires and such all over the USA as well as other countries. I would doubt any leader anywhere is not aware of what they are all doing.

Agreed. I don't think trump is as clueless and powerless about this as he is making it seem.

For a long time
March 15, 2018


The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of engineering a series of cyberattacks that targeted American and European nuclear power plants and water and electric systems, and could have sabotaged or shut power plants off at will.

www.nytimes.com...

originally posted by: letni
www.nytimes.com...

WASHINGTON — The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said. In interviews over the past three months, the officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets as a classified companion to more publicly discussed action directed at Moscow’s disinformation and hacking units around the 2018 midterm elections.

Had no idea this was going on. Apparently, neither did Trump. He would have never approved it, but he is mad at NYT for reporting it, rather than Deep State for doing (and still doing) it!

From the above except above the excuse is 'payback' for 'collusion' in the midterm elections. Collusion that most likely didn't even happen. So it makes sense deep state would be operating above executive law itself.

To what end?

Those that hate Trump and were positioning for a new cold/warm war with Russia in the lead up to the 2016 election are trying to force Trumps hand.

Curious what kind of moron thinks it's a good idea to have important systems such as the power grid accessible by the internet and why did anyone listen to him.

Wouldn't it be safer to have things like this running on their own closed system to avoid such an attack?
What about the nuclear power plants all over the world, I wonder how at risk they are.

originally posted by: ShadowLink
Curious what kind of moron thinks it's a good idea to have important systems such as the power grid accessible by the internet and why did anyone listen to him.

Wouldn't it be safer to have things like this running on their own closed system to avoid such an attack?
What about the nuclear power plants all over the world, I wonder how at risk they are.

There are always ways if it is computerised.

About 588 million smart meters will be installed worldwide by 2022, according to a report last year by GlobalData UK Ltd., a consultancy. Once you include other connected devices and grid operators’ own control systems, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Stuxnet, the worm that crippled Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities in 2010, appears to have been initially spread via an infected USB drive smuggled into one of the plants and plugged into a computer.

blog.claroty.com...

originally posted by: ShadowLink
Curious what kind of moron thinks it's a good idea to have important systems such as the power grid accessible by the internet and why did anyone listen to him.

Wouldn't it be safer to have things like this running on their own closed system to avoid such an attack?
What about the nuclear power plants all over the world, I wonder how at risk they are.

They did it for convenience. It's easier to push updates and whatnot when you can just download them rather than having to send hardware to all the users.

Personally, for critical infrastructure, I'd rather have the security and take the extra expense and pain in the ass of doing updates manually.

As for these mysterious power outages, here in PA the power grid is just fine, thanks.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

How else do you operate and control a very large distributed control system? I work in a utility control environment and rely on satellite, radio, PSTN, GSM and GPRS communications to manage a network and it would be next to impossible to maintain supplies without some degree of internet access. The only way would be locally monitoring thousands of sites for the occasional issue.

originally posted by: RexKramerPRT
a reply to: SeaWorthy

How else do you operate and control a very large distributed control system? I work in a utility control environment and rely on satellite, radio, PSTN, GSM and GPRS communications to manage a network and it would be next to impossible to maintain supplies without some degree of internet access. The only way would be locally monitoring thousands of sites for the occasional issue.

I think you meant to respond to ShadowLink

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Ha, bang on. Sorry mate.

originally posted by: letni

From the above except above the excuse is 'payback' for 'collusion' in the midterm elections. Collusion that most likely didn't even happen. So it makes sense deep state would be operating above executive law itself.

I'd say this adds fuel to the fire that collusion did happen else why would they be carrying out these retaliatory attacks?