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Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Hackers
Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software
programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and
former national-security officials.
The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said,
and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system
and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or
other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a
crisis or war.
(What officials? What specific evidence?)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A pair of bills introduced in the U.S. Senate would grant the White House
sweeping new powers to access private online data, regulate the
cybersecurity industry and even shut down Internet traffic during a declared
"cyber emergency." Senate bills No. 773 and 778, introduced by Sen. Jay
Rockefeller, D-W.V., are both part of what's being called the Cybersecurity
Act of 2009, which would create a new Office of the National Cybersecurity
Advisor, reportable directly to the president and charged with defending the
country from cyber attack. A working draft of the legislation obtained by an
Internet privacy group also spells out plans to grant the Secretary of
Commerce access to all privately owned information networks deemed to be
critical to the nation's infrastructure "without regard to any provision of
law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access."
Article continues.......
"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the
electrical grid," said a senior intelligence official. "So have the
Russians."
The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn't target a
particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security
official. "There are intrusions, and they are growing," the former official
said, referring to electrical systems. "There were a lot last year."
Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the
infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said.
Intelligence officials worry about cyber attackers taking control of
electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the
Internet.
Authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left
behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components, the senior
intelligence official said. He added, "If we go to war with them, they will
try to turn them on."
Officials said water, sewage and other infrastructure systems also were at
risk.
"Over the past several years, we have seen cyberattacks against critical
infrastructures abroad, and many of our own infrastructures are as
vulnerable as their foreign counterparts," Director of National Intelligence
Dennis Blair recently told lawmakers. "A number of nations, including Russia
and China, can disrupt elements of the U.S. information infrastructure."
Officials cautioned that the motivation of the cyberspies wasn't well
understood, and they don't see an immediate danger. China, for example, has
little incentive to disrupt the U.S. economy because it relies on American
consumers and holds U.S. government debt.
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. Under the Bush administration, Congress approved $17 billion in
secret funds to protect government networks, according to people familiar
with the budget. The Obama administration is weighing whether to expand the
program to address vulnerabilities in private computer networks, which would
cost billions of dollars more. A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday the
Pentagon has spent $100 million in the past six months repairing cyber
damage.
Overseas examples show the potential havoc. In 2000, a disgruntled employee
rigged a computerized control system at a water-treatment plant in
Australia, releasing more than 200,000 gallons of sewage into parks, rivers
and the grounds of a Hyatt hotel.
Last year, a senior Central Intelligence Agency official, Tom Donahue, told
a meeting of utility company representatives in New Orleans that a
cyberattack had taken out power equipment in multiple regions outside the
U.S. The outage was followed with extortion demands, he said.
The U.S. electrical grid comprises three separate electric networks,
covering the East, the West and Texas. Each 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, according to
government reports.
The sophistication of the U.S. intrusions -- which extend beyond electric to
other key infrastructure systems -- suggests that China and Russia are
mainly responsible, according to intelligence officials and cybersecurity
specialists. While terrorist groups could develop the ability to penetrate
U.S. infrastructure, they don't appear to have yet mounted attacks, these
officials say.
It is nearly impossible to know whether or not an attack is
government-sponsored because of the difficulty in tracking true identities
in cyberspace. U.S. officials said investigators have followed electronic
trails of stolen data to China and Russia.
Russian and Chinese officials have denied any wrongdoing. "These are pure
speculations," said Yevgeniy Khorishko, a spokesman at the Russian Embassy.
"Russia has nothing to do with the cyberattacks on the U.S. infrastructure,
or on any infrastructure in any other country in the world."
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Wang Baodong, said the
Chinese government "resolutely oppose[s] any crime, including hacking, that
destroys the Internet or computer network" and has laws barring the
practice. China was ready to cooperate with other countries to counter such
attacks, he said, and added that "some people overseas with Cold War
mentality are indulged in fabricating the sheer lies of the so-called
cyberspies in China."
Utilities are reluctant to speak about the dangers. "Much of what we've
done, we can't talk about," said Ray Dotter, a spokesman at PJM
Interconnection LLC, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity
in 13 states and the District of Columbia. He said the organization has
beefed up its security, in conformance with federal standards.
In January 2008, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved new
protection measures that required improvements in the security of computer
servers and better plans for handling attacks.
Last week, Senate Democrats introduced a proposal that would require all
critical infrastructure companies to meet new cybersecurity standards and
grant the president emergency powers over control of the grid systems and
other infrastructure.
The U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit is a nonprofit research
institute, http://www.usccu.us
( are they receiving funding to arrive at a goal set by the Obama
Administration for Executive Power to control the domestic internet because of threats?)
They said attack programs search for openings in a network, much as a
thief tests locks on doors. Once inside, these programs and their human
controllers can acquire the same access and powers as a systems
administrator.
The White House review of cybersecurity programs is studying ways to shield
the electrical grid from such attacks, said James Lewis, who directed a
study for the Center for Strategic and International Studies and has met
with White House reviewers.
The reliability of the grid is ultimately the responsibility of the North
American Electric Reliability Corp., an independent standards-setting
organization overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The NERC set standards last year requiring companies to designate "critical
cyber assets." Companies, for example, must check the backgrounds of
employees and install firewalls to separate administrative networks from
those that control electricity flow. The group will begin auditing
compliance in July.
Rebecca Smith contributed to this article. Write to Siobhan Gorman at
siobhan.gorman@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914805204099085.html
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