Can Chinese hackers shut off your power?

Shane Harris makes some explosive allegations in a new article for the National Journal. Experts, citing U.S. officials, believe that China’s People’s Liberation Army may have shut down power grids in Florida and the northeastern United States, Harris reports: Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said ...

Shane Harris makes some explosive allegations in a new article for the National Journal. Experts, citing U.S. officials, believe that China's People's Liberation Army may have shut down power grids in Florida and the northeastern United States, Harris reports:

Shane Harris makes some explosive allegations in a new article for the National Journal. Experts, citing U.S. officials, believe that China’s People’s Liberation Army may have shut down power grids in Florida and the northeastern United States, Harris reports:

Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said that U.S. intelligence officials have told him that the PLA in 2003 gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern United States. The intelligence officials said that forensic analysis had confirmed the source, Bennett said. “They said that, with confidence, it had been traced back to the PLA.” These officials believe that the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year. A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected.

If the allegations are true, was this act intentional? Perhaps not, another source tells Harris:

A second information-security expert independently corroborated Bennett’s account of the Florida blackout. According to this individual, who cited sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, a Chinese PLA hacker attempting to map Florida Power & Light’s computer infrastructure apparently made a mistake. “The hacker was probably supposed to be mapping the system for his bosses and just got carried away and had a ‘what happens if I pull on this’ moment.” The hacker triggered a cascade effect, shutting down large portions of the Florida power grid, the security expert said. “I suspect, as the system went down, the PLA hacker said something like, ‘Oops, my bad,’ in Chinese.”

I wonder if Richard Clarke still believes that the real threat from Chinese hackers is industrial espionage.

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