Power Plants, Other Infrastructure Face Hackers

By: Clean Skies News, Published: 01/29/10 3:29pm

As the country moves toward a smart grid, security is becoming a major concern.

The older, analog grid was not subject to hacking. But now more than half of the operators of power plants and other critical infrastructure say in a new study that their computer networks have been infiltrated. Many of the victims suspect foreign governments.

The report, prepared by security software maker McAfee Inc. and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was based on a survey completed by 600 executives and technology managers from infrastructure operators in 14 countries. It did not name the respondents and was not specific about what happened in the cyber-attacks.

Fifty-four percent of those who responded acknowledged "stealthy infiltration" of their networks. The same percentage also said they have experienced large-scale "denial-of-service" attacks, which flood a computer network with bogus traffic, knocking it out of service. Those who reported denial of service attacks often said the incidents had effects ranging from minor service interruptions to sustained damage and critical breakdowns.

Utilities are susceptible to attacks because they use mainstream software, and parts of their operations are connected to to the Internet so technicians can fix problems remotely.

The power and oil and gas sectors most frequently reported being targeted for extortion.