ANALYSIS/OPINION:

There have been more than 100 cyber attacks on power plants around the world this year, with over half of them in the United States. This is a very serious threat. Cyber warfare has already been used against the power grid in Ukraine twice over the last few years, the result being hundreds of thousands of customers being plunged into darkness. It could happen here and we are seeing the preparations for this type of attack.



The computer security firm Symantec has released a report saying shadowy groups linked to Russia, “Energetic Bear” and “Dragonfly,” are behind the cyber intrusions, wrote The Daily Beast.



“The original Dragonfly campaigns now appear to have been a more exploratory phase where the attackers were simply trying to gain access to the networks of targeted organizations,” the Symantec report concludes. Now, “the attackers may be entering into a new phase, with recent campaigns potentially providing them with access to operational systems, access that could be used for more disruptive purposes in future.”



“The ones where the attackers were able to get on the operational side of the house were the scariest to us,” said Vikram Thakur, technical director at Symantec. “We’ve seen them get on these operational computers and start taking rapid-fire screenshots. Some would show maps of what’s connected to what.”



When coupled with the fact that physical intrusions were discovered at power substations in the United States, it is obvious that someone is targeting our electric grid for attack in the event of war.

It is also well established that North Korea does not need to develop accurate nuclear weapons. All they need to do is explode an airburst over North America and we would see a large percentage of the grid shut down for a long period of time due to EMP. This means no food, no medicine, no water…for years. Millions of Americans would die.



Congress needs to take the threat to our power grid seriously and start funding a solution — now.

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