Cyberespionage appears to be on the rise says the Wall St. Journal report, citing anonymous national security officials. U.S. govt. officials are worried that the cyberspies could use their access to try to shut down the grid or take control of power plants during a time of crisis or war. These spies came from China, Russia and other countries, according to the report and were believed to be on a mission to navigate and learn about the U.S. electrical system and its controls.
"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," a senior intelligence official told the paper. "So have the Russians."
This type of spying appears to be pervasive across the United States and does not target any particular company or any region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official. "There are intrusions, and they are growing," the former official told the paper, referring to electrical systems. "There were a lot last year."
Authorities investigating the incident have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components entirely, according to senior intelligence officials said. Accordingly, water, sewage, nuclear power plants and other infrastructure systems are also at risk. In 2007, a simulated attack done by the Idaho National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security showed that a known software vulnerability in a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, system could be used to destroy power grid equipment.
The U.S. electrical grid comprises three separate electric networks, covering the East, the West and Texas. Each of these includes many thousands of miles of transmission lines, power plants and substations. The flow of power is controlled by local utilities or regional transmission organizations. The growing reliance of utilities on Internet-based communication has increased the vulnerability of control systems to spies and hackers.
Protecting the electrical grid and other infrastructure is a key part of the Obama administration's cybersecurity review, which is to be completed next week. The fact that these sophisticated intrusions extend beyond electric to other key infrastructure systems, suggests that China and Russia are mainly responsible, say the intelligence officials and cybersecurity specialists. Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, who heads U.S. Strategic Command, said the U.S. military is only starting to track the costs, which are triggered by constant daily attacks against military networks ranging from the Pentagon to bases around the country.
"The important thing is that we recognize that we are under assault from the least sophisticated - what I would say the bored teenager - all the way up to the sophisticated nation-state, with some pretty criminal elements sandwiched in-between," said Chilton, adding that the motivations include everything from vandalism to espionage. "This is indeed our big challenge, as we think about how to defend it."
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