Russian Hackers Penetrate U.S. Power Grid
August 2018 - With Donald Trump vacillating again, seemingly afraid to publicly admit that Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 American elections, we wonder if he's willing to challenge Mr. Putin on Russia's ongoing attempts to hack critical U.S. infrastructure companies, including those that run our nation's power grid.
He'd better. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Rebecca Smith reported that Russia's campaign to hack into our electric utilities is proving to be successful. She quotes a July report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which found that a state-sponsored Russian group has been able to gain access to the control rooms of numerous utilities and, in some cases, actually got to the point where the hackers could have disrupted power flows.
 (image from wikipedia.com)
According to the officials who released the DHS report, the means by which the hackers achieved their success was first to penetrate the computer networks belonging to the key vendors of a given power company, vendors who had trusted relationships with that utility. The hackers then stole credentials from these vendors, which gave them direct access to the utilities themselves.
These DHS findings came as little surprise to those who work in the national security community or those who work in Information Technology security. Attempts to penetrate internet providers, water systems, and power companies have been taking place for quite some time now, with the hackers frequently being traced back to Russia. Many felt it was just a matter of time before the Russians would find a weak link they could exploit in order to achieve some success.
What was surprising, though, is the report's findings that hundreds, not just dozens, of vendors and utilities have been breached. As former Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Carpenter was quoted as saying in the Smith article, "{the hackers}… are positioning themselves for a limited or widespread attack. They are waging a covert war on the West."
 (Putin image from huffpost-uk)
Let's hope this type of activity on the part of the Russians was included in the two-hour private meeting that Mr. Trump had with Mr. Putin during their July summit in Helsinki and, furthermore, that Mr. Trump threatened to take actions that will make Mr. Putin as wary of Mr. Trump as Mr. Putin apparently was of Hillary Clinton.
Don't bet on it, though.
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