Hackers cause large scale power outages in Brazil (2005, 2007)

Last Updated on Saturday, 7 November 2009 08:46 Written by Jeffreycarr Saturday, 7 November 2009 08:46

Thanks to CBS news and the 60 Minutes team, the truth finally emerges about what’s been happening not just in Brazil but in the U.S. and other countries. The Power grid and other SCADA systems are not only vulnerable to attack; they’ve BEEN attacked. I don’t know how far 60 Minutes is exploring this problem outside of the Brazil incidents, but I hope this triggers a renewed emphasis on the state of our nation’s cyber security.

The Project Grey Goose investigation on Power Grid attacks and vulnerabilities is ongoing.

4 Comments

1. Mark   |  Tuesday, 10 November 2009 at 9:02 am

   It seems more likely the Brazilian attack was caused by poor maintenance:

   http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/brazil_blackout/

   
2. Matthew Wollenweber   |  Tuesday, 10 November 2009 at 11:58 am

   According to Wired (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/brazil_blackout/) the blackout wasn’t associated with hackers.

   
3. admin   |  Tuesday, 10 November 2009 at 6:48 pm

   It’s not surprising that a power utility denies a successful hacker attack. That’s pretty much the standard response. Having said that, however, I think 60 Minutes needed to build their case a lot better than they did for that particular attack.

   
4. Gli Hacker Oscurano il Brasile? | PillolHacking.Net   |  Wednesday, 11 November 2009 at 2:45 pm

   [...] Domenica scorsa la televisione americana CBS ha trasmesso un documentario sulla cyberwarfare dove suggeriva che alcuni black-out avvenuti in passato fossero incidenti provocati da attacchi hacker. [...]