Canvassing the cyber security landscape: Why energy companies need to pay attention
Recent news of a “highly sophisticated and targeted” cyber attack on Google, Yahoo, and perhaps on as many as a dozen other companies has once again brought the issue of cyber security to the top of the news. The Journey of Energy Security dives into some of the energy industries historical background and outlines some of the key vulnerabilities, threats and risks that energy industry faces.
Ensec.com May 18, 2010
For obvious reasons, to date no government, utility, or energy company has officially stated that a major power outage or similar event has been caused by a cyber attack. That being said, numerous reports have appeared attributing specific incidents to cyber attacks. Although reports from the CIA do not name specific countries, they do claim that in at least one case, multiple cities were affected, and that the attacks were subsequently followed by blackmail or extortion attempts. Perhaps the closest thing to a smoking gun is a series of power outages in Brazil in 2005, 2007, and 2009. Brazil has steadfastly denied that a cyber attack occurred in either 2007 or 2009, attributing the 2007 outage to “sooty insulators” on high-voltage lines. In contrast, a number of analysts believe that at least the 2005 event was due to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) disruptions caused by hostile intrusion via the Internet.
Moreover, malware and hackers are known to have penetrated numerous times into critical supervision parts of the power grids in Australia, Europe, and the U.S. Examples include nuclear power plants being shut down due to cyber disruptions, near loss of control of a national control system in Australia due to malware, and a hacker who was able to wander around in a large European transmission system operator’s grid for 10 days.
Classified reports from around the globe indicate that main SCADA operator consoles of both refineries and large chemical plants have been penetrated by hackers for days. Similarly, malware has penetrated control systems on offshore oil and gas platforms a number of times, resulting in the risk of uncontrolled release of gas or oil and potential environmental damage, as well as possible explosions and loss of the platforms.