Russian hackers have penetrated hundreds of electric utilities; could cause blackouts, Feds say.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

David Fahrenthold Retweeted:

Readers: You'll see a familiar byline here. Rebecca Smith, the nation's premier utilities reporter, is back at @wsj. Her new story: Russian hackers have penetrated hundreds of electric utilities and could have caused blackouts, federal officials said.

Link to tweet

[onecaliberal]

1. What is being done to stop it?

[msongs]

2. why are republicans allowing this. perhaps schumer could ask them. nt

[LiberalArkie]

3. I wonder if they will be different than ENRON

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Who's Jessica Smith? NT

[tonyt53]

5. I have been in dozens of power plant control rooms, coal-fired, nukes and NG.

ALL have manual redundant control systems and can be switched to manual operation in less than a minute. They all have gauges (digital usually) that the operators can use to monitor the operations. After the super-trip a few years ago from eastern MI across New England, safeguards were put into place that mandate auto/manual control of power to grids. I'm more concerned about traffic lights and railroads than power plants.

[Golden Raisin]

6. Ted Koppel's "Lights Out" (2015)

covers in gruesome and scary detail our infrastructure and power grids' serious vulnerabilities to crippling cyberattacks. A good read but it will give you pause and probably nightmares.