It's a hot day today in sunny West Texas with temps projected to reach 101°F. Thank goodness for air conditioners. There's a price to pay for this luxury, though. However, there's one thing worse than those outrageously expensive summertime electricity bills. That would be a blackout with no electricity at all.
The fear of an emp attack is real enough. But there's a simpler way for an enemy to sabotage the electric grid -- malware like the one that was used against Ukraine.
Cybersecurity companies ESET and Dragos Inc. have released information about Crashoverride, the malware that did the dirty deed. Read all about it at any of these articles:
Lights out: How Crash Override hits power grids -- hard. Excerpt:
Attacks targeting infrastructure can lead to chaos, like when engineers hacked into Los Angeles' traffic signal system and purposely created traffic jams. The researchers who discovered Industroyer warn it can be used to do significant damage to electrical power systems, and can be modified to hit other kinds of infrastructure. That makes it the biggest threat to industrial systems since Stuxnet in 2010.
'Crash Override': The Malware That Took Down a Power Grid. Excerpt:
The researchers say this new malware can automate mass power outages, like the one in Ukraine’s capital, and includes swappable, plug-in components that could allow it to be adapted to different electric utilities, easily reused, or even launched simultaneously across multiple targets. They argue that those features suggest Crash Override could inflict outages far more widespread and longer lasting than the Kiev blackout.
Found: “Crash Override” malware that triggered Ukrainian power outage Excerpt.
What makes Crash Override so sophisticated is its ability to use the same arcane technical protocols that individual electric grid systems rely on to communicate with one another. As such, the malware is more notable for its mastery of the industrial processes used by global grid operators than its robust code. Its fluency in the low-level grid languages allowed it to instruct Ukrainian devices to de-energize and re-energize substation lines, a capability not seen in the attack a year earlier that used a much cruder set of tools and techniques. The concern is that "Industroyer"—the other name given to the malware—can be used against a broad range of electric systems around the world.
Or, if you are a serious student of the subject, go to Dragos' 35 page PFD at CRASHOVERRIDE -- Analyzing the Threat to Electric Grid Operations.
Let's hope those in control at the utility companies are not complacent about the potential catastrophe that could follow a major power disruption.
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12:54 PM 6/13/2017
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