Oh great. This report says since May. I have a tiny feeling it’s been going on a lot longer than that and we just don’t have the details because of the absent and careless POTUS for the last 8 years. And if I’m not mistaken, the details of this report, in order to have been “obtained” by the New York Times, would have to be another serious national security leak. The people doing these leaks must be held as accountable as any hostile spy would be.
Hackers have targeted nuclear facilities in the U.S. since May, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.
The New York Times obtained a so-called urgent joint report by Homeland Security and the FBI that found hackers have been penetrating companies that run nuclear power plants and other energy facilities, as well as manufacturing plants in the U.S. and other countries.
Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, which operates a nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kan., is among the targeted companies, the report said.
The report, dated June 28, is tagged with an “amber alert” label, the second-highest rating for the severity of a threat.
There is no evidence the hackers had been able to access the control systems of the facilities, the Times reported.
Wolf Creek told the Times that no “operations systems” were affected and that its corporate network and the Internet were separate from the network that runs the plant.
Bloomberg reported separately Thursday that at least a dozen U.S. power plants were breached. Current and former U.S. officials told Bloomberg that the hackers may be aiming to eventually disrupt the nation’s power supply.
Russia is the chief suspect in the hackings, Bloomberg said. Russia is also suspected as being involved in an international cyberattack that struck computer systems from Ukraine to the U.S.
Don’t know the specifics here but a nuclear plant’s operating system is separate from the internet and corporate computer system as Wolf Creek says. There are computer systems in nuclear power plants that are used for information not direct operation, that can be connected to corporate computer system and thereby the web. Operators could be mislead by wrong info. displayed but they are trained to check all indications, specifically the direct plant indications. Operating threat from hacking is operator error due to viewing incorrect info. Not possible for hackers to take control of operating systems.
The Bloomberg info. that a dozen power plants have been breached are undoubtedly fossil fuel plants. They don’t have the nuclear plant systems separation. Weakest link for hacking electrical grid is not the plants but the grid operator that oversees the power distribution. If you can knock that out, you can black out a large portion of the country. (And if you knock the grid out, then the nuclear plants have to rely on themselves and their batteries. Large part of Fukushima lesson learned was ensure that nuke plants can survive long term loss of outside electrical grid.)