Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Possible? Yes. Prevalent and widespread? No. Much power grid equipment is so old fashioned (compared to the networld) that it is still direct connected on dedicated and encrypted communications systems and not net enabled. Ya can't just surf in to the heavy duty stuff if it's done as it is required. As to plants, there are a few remote controlled small plants, but most have us "Homers" watching the meters, trying to keep the lights on. There are many requirements for reliabililty of the power grid. Surf thru NERC.COM to read up. Fines can be in the millions for non-compliance, so the utillities are well motivated to keep it locked up.

This kind of "Sky Is Falling" article seems to be mostly fear mongering (after all, it's missing significant information and how many readers are really going to call their Congressman without that?). That a hacker achieved entrance is more likely to the utilities IT side, not their system control side. It isn't specified if these "hacker-consultants" were doing intrusion testing, which is a normal part of checking compliance with required operations security, but that is normal and not really "news". Folks who know what they are doing (as in equally capable to the hackers) are working hard to keep them out.
To repeat: Possible? Yes, most anything is possible. Prevalent and widespread? No, the sky is not falling.