Chinese hackers have control of US power grid

reply to post by Zarniwoop

"Creating this office allows FERC to leverage its existing resources with those of other government agencies and private industry in a coordinated, focused manner," FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said in a statement. "Effective mitigation of cyber and other physical attacks requires rapid interactions among regulators, industry and federal and state agencies."

Earlier this year, a survey of 104 security professionals in the energy sector revealed that many were skeptical about the security of the smart grid. According to the survey, which was sponsored by nCircle and the Energy Sector Security Consortium (EnergySec), 61 percent of respondents said smart meter installations do not have sufficient security controls to protect against false data injection. Seventy-five percent said security had not been sufficiently addressed in smart grid deployment.

FERC creates office to address cybersecurity

reply to post by CIAGypsy

Strategy dictates that they won't simply cause a shutdown of the power grid. If they are going to take it down, they will do it in coordination with other attacks. They will make us blind, deaf, and mute, all at once so we can't see the REAL punch coming.

Logically speaking, I think you are right, though I doubt the Chinese have the ability to cripple the USA in such a manner.

At best they could drop civilian systems.

The military however is another story. Military systems are normally segregated to limit loss/damages if hacked.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


I'm not saying it's not a big issue.

What I'm saying is that Chinese hackers do not have control of the US power grid.

My point with this story is that we are engaging in a new battlefield.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Granted, they have not SHUT DOWN the power grid. I would even give you the argument that they haven't gained full control of the power grid.

But they are storming the gates..... Not just with the energy sector, but banking, chemical companies, phone networks, and more.

Hackers unlock prison cell locks?

Originally posted by CIAGypsy
My point with this story is that we are engaging in a new battlefield.

I wouldn't say new, after all, this has been going on since the 80's......It is just that these days, it is given more attention by the media.

Originally posted by CIAGypsy

Originally posted by OccamAssassin
This is pretty big.

S&F

A situation like this could spark a war.

If the yanks think that 9/11 was a home-tuff attack....I wonder at the public reaction to a hacker instigated meltdown or the like.

If it were my call.......I'd order the chinese servers to be hacked, have their safety systems disabled and systematically give each server an paradoxical algorithm to burn out each system.

Strategy dictates that they won't simply cause a shutdown of the power grid. If they are going to take it down, they will do it in coordination with other attacks. They will make us blind, deaf, and mute, all at once so we can't see the REAL punch coming.

don't underestimate the alphabet organizations. when media outlets show fat, dumbass, slope-headed, knuckle-dragging americans, it is not representative of the dedicated, and highly intelligent people that work in national security areas.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


Yes. It's very misunderstood as is cyber security even by large institutions that she be very concerned. I can't even pretend to act as if I have much knowledge on it, but I am awaare of how it can play out in the real world.

Other people will be too someday, maybe when control is lost at a nuclear power station and it causes damage or a power grid goes down and people lose heat in the middle of a bad snow storm.

reply to post by jimmyx


I don't underestimate them at all..... Would never think of such a thing.... roflmao.....

Sorry, you have no idea how funny your comment is and I'm not in a position to explain. But you really gave me a good belly laugh.....

reply to post by OccamAssassin



In truth, it is given very little attention by the media. Mainstream media anyway.... The general public has no clue how pervasive this problem has become. For the past 7 years (at a minimum), we've been engaged in a high tech guerrilla warfare that you've only barely caught the scent of.... As usual, someone got caught with their pants down and now the Company is moving to respond.

I promise you....in the next 2 years, you will see dramatic changes in international law in regards to cyber terrorism and the internet. I *promise* you....

Originally posted by OccamAssassin
This is pretty big.

S&F

A situation like this could spark a war.

If the yanks think that 9/11 was a home-tuff attack....I wonder at the public reaction to a hacker instigated meltdown or the like.

If it were my call.......I'd order the chinese servers to be hacked, have their safety systems disabled and systematically give each server an paradoxical algorithm to burn out each system.

Very big.

It could rise to the level of a nuclear attack if they "shut us down". Nuclear power plants are designed with redundant off-site power supplies to run the cooling systems, there are generators and batteries in the event they lose off-site power. Granted Fukushima was in trouble anyway, but with no power or cooling they were helpless to even try to control things. Without power things rapidly spiral out of control, especially of that design.

In the "real world test" at Fukishima 03/11/11 backup power, both diesel generators and batteries failed 100% and a lot of us understand what followed. Turn your focus to the US now, there are 104 operating reactors 35 are boiling water reactors some of them the exact same design and others very similar in design to Fukushima. Imagine the ramifications if rather than 100% of backup failing a mere 5% failed. With reactors in 31 states that gives most of us a lot better odds than I'm comfortable with of being near our own Fukushima

My honest opinion is that shutting down the electronics of the world is a double-edged blade. While it would do the young'uns some good to have their appliances nullified for a while, as well as remind everyone else that everything heavenly isn't powered by electricity, it would completely blind the data community. We would be flying in the dark.

Which brings me to the question: how can we be sure that these hackers aren't acting under orders in one chain or another?

NERC is the organization that is responsible for developing and enforcing the network and data security program that all the grid energy providers need to be complaint with.

As of June 18, 2007, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted NERC the legal authority to enforce reliability standards with all users, owners, and operators of the bulk power system in the United States, and made compliance with those standards mandatory and enforceable.

It's good to see that they are dishing out fines for non-compliance.

You can see if your local provider is in any "hot water" Here

This is definitely something to deal with now rather than later. Heaven forbid they disrupt the power grid, or as some have pointed out; gain access to a few nuke plants? That would be a national security issue in the highest order. Could they not take necessary measures to restrict access to the internet? Like system administrators setting up protocols on the network that would restrict clients from accessing the internet from company computers and accessing them remotely? While at work no Googling, checking email, or any of that nonsense.

These hackers are getting in somewhere, and it not just hardware that allegedly has malware installed out of the box. People are doing things on the internet that would cause any IT department to tear their hair out. Going to porn sites, downloading malicious software, and partaking in other risky activities on the internet. That is true, because we have heard about in the news affecting not only commercial institutions, but government as well. People don't care, because if they did? They would not partake in such behavior. This is really gettting ridiculous, and it is has become a grievous situation.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


Click Click........nothing happened

reply to post by CIAGypsy

For the past 7 years (at a minimum), we've been engaged in a high tech guerrilla warfare that you've only barely caught the scent of...

Caught the scent of?

I'm sorry but I don't work for the NSA so I was aware of the situation about 20 odd years prior to your 7 year figure.

I think the only way to 'get past a firewall' is to shut it down from the inside. I dont think there is a method for bypassing it on systems that are not already compromised .

reply to post by OccamAssassin


20 years ago it wasn't state sponsored. 20 years ago, it was a bunch of kids out there seeing how far they could get or even geeky cyber criminals who figured out how to get credit card info or new identities. It wasn't cyber armies who were hired specifically to write malicious code, hack into systems to take control of them, and gain access to foundational source code which is much more valuable than a credit card number.

Attacks on banking systems are tied back to Iran. Energy grid attacks tied to China. Stuxnet and Flame were state sponsored malicious programs that, while simple, were brilliant and flew under the radar for a very long time before anyone fully understood the implications of them.

What is the difference between cyber warfare and cyber terrorism? Do you know?

The firewall is a joke, but it really does not need to be hardcore when you need to hard wire in to it. All IP are logged and any IP not int he system is blocked. I think the system could be a lot better but the bean counters have taken over and cut a lot of funding in the utility companies.

reply to post by adjensen


Stop making sense!
Governments don't work that way you know.
I'm not sure if I buy into the premise here or not but it sounds as if they want us to think next time the power goes off it's China's doing.
Since all our crap is made in China anyway they could potentially load malware and back doors in to many places.