Russians Are Said to Be Suspects in Nuclear Site Hackings

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Bloomberg

Hackers working for a foreign government recently breached at least a dozen U.S. power plants, including the Wolf Creek nuclear facility in Kansas, according to current and former U.S. officials, sparking concerns the attackers were searching for vulnerabilities in the electrical grid.

The rivals could be positioning themselves to eventually disrupt the nation’s power supply, warned the officials, who noted that a general alert was distributed to utilities a week ago. Adding to those concerns, hackers recently infiltrated an unidentified company that makes control systems for equipment used in the power industry, an attack that officials believe may be related.

The chief suspect is Russia, according to three people familiar with the continuing effort to eject the hackers from the computer networks. One of those networks belongs to an aging nuclear generating facility known as Wolf Creek -- owned by Westar Energy Inc., Great Plains Energy Inc. and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc. -- on a lake shore near Burlington, Kansas.

The possibility of a Russia connection is particularly worrisome, former and current officials say, because Russian hackers have previously taken down parts of the electrical grid in Ukraine and appear to be testing increasingly advanced tools to disrupt power supplies.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-07/russians-are-said-to-be-suspects-in-hacks-involving-nuclear-site

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Sewing confusion for ....

invasion? to .... quell dissent?

[Achilleaze]

2. republicans: "We don't care."

"Hell, if it hadn't been for the russians, our beloved Draft-Dodger-in-Chief, Comrade Casino, could never have stolen the White House. This nuclear meddling shit should also continue to be, um, interesting. Ha ha America. Ha ha." - Republicans

[octoberlib]

3. And there's a video floating around on

Twitter of Trump slobbering all over Putin and patting his back at the G20. Makes me sick.

[Igel]

4. As usual, there are administrative and operating systems.

And as with the "election systems" hacking, "There is no indication of a threat to public safety, as any potential impact appears to be limited to administrative and business networks." Not the operations side of things.

It's like saying your AC is going to die if your home computer gets a virus. Even if they never talk to each other. What most people will read the OP as saying is not what the OP is saying.

Not good having your email hacked. Maybe, if they have enough info on the plant itself they could infect some bit of tech that gets carried from one system to another, or maybe infect the control system software as it's being built.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Hacking administrative systems can be an intermediate step, though

Looking for shared passwords, ways of spoofing password resets or forging credentials, things like that. As it says, Ukrainian systems actually were hit in the recent hacking; whether that is related to this attempt isn't clear. And:

"Even if there is no indication that the hackers gained access to those control systems, the design of the malware suggests they may have at least been looking for ways to do so, the expert said."

[KRISITNA]

6. Meanwhile in Germany

45 gently caresses Putin's back.

[WhiteTara]

8. This is disgusting, isn't it.

Welcome to DU!

[CousinIT]

7. Which SHitler (Trump's right-hand "man") will promptly ignore. n/t