Could North Korean Hackers Shut Down The U.S. Power Grid

Reuters

Kevin Poulsen, Daily Beast: North Korean Hackers May Be Developing Malware That Could Shut Down the U.S. Power Grid

More than half of security vulnerabilities tested in U.S. industrial systems could lead to “severe operational impact.”

Inside the modern power plants, transmission facilities, and electrical substations that make up a power grid, nearly everything is controlled by computers, and those systems haven’t gotten more secure since Russian government hackers triggered an electrical outage in Ukraine over a year ago. Now there are indications that North Korea may be working to follow Russia’s lead, and sizing up the U.S. as a target.

Those are some of the takeaways from new research by the Maryland-based cybersecurity firm Dragos, which specializes in industrial-control systems like those in the electrical grid and on factory floors. The company analyzed 163 new security vulnerabilities that surfaced last year in industrial-control components, and found that 61 percent of them would likely cause “severe operational impact” if exploited in a cyberattack.

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WNU Editor: Hackers shutting down the power grid is a story that makes the rounds in the news every few months. This one is no exception .... accept that it involves North Korea.