I project-managed wind turbine installs and repairs in the aughts. Wind turbines, like most infrastructure, are managed by SCADA systems. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. The SCADA system interfaced with the turbine’s PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to control the machinery itself. In plain English, it meant I could log into the turbine on my computer, check how it’s doing and make any changes needed, like shutting it down, setting a max speed, whatever needed doing without my being there, climbing the tower or turning a wrench. All that was needed were my log in credentials.
Like any electronic device, SCADA systems are vulnerable to hacking. The Stuxnet virus which infected the Iranian nuclear program used their SCADA system to command the centrifuge PLCs to spin at speeds which destroyed them, crippling the Iranian nuclear program and delaying its progress for a couple of years. It was the first cyber attack to cause real world physical damage. The assailants were likely the United States or Israel.
All of our communications, power and manufacturing infrastructure use SCADA systems.
Unlike the Iranian systems, which were not networked to the internet and therefore needed a thumb drive to infect them, most of our infrastructure is tied into the internet. This allows companies to save fortunes in manpower costs as a lot of work can be done remotely.
This also leaves us wide open to attack.
In 2012, researchers at Crowdstrike reported that a Russian group hacked into multiple oil, gas and energy companies in the United States in attacks they believed were backed by the Russian government due to their sophistication. In June 2014, Symantec reported that Russian hackers had broken into the networks of three major makers of SCADA systems and installed Trojan malware that would be uploaded to users during updates – over 250 oil, gas and energy firms were affected. Symantec warned that these attacks could give the Russians Stuxnet-like control over our systems.
Two months ago, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Russian hackers had penetrated the control rooms of multiple U.S. utilities.
Yesterday, an over-pressurized gas line caused three explosions and eighty structural fires in Massachusetts. Columbia Gas was upgrading their aging gas lines beneath the ground. It’s almost certain the cause of this accident was a screw up in the repair work that had nothing to do with SCADA systems or foreign hacking. But consider what would happen should Russia decide to attack our infrastructure and deliberately over-pressurize our gas lines in multiple locations simultaneously.
President Trump has threatened Iran and North Korea since taking office. It’s debatable if either country could launch a successful military strike against the U.S. mainland. What is not debatable is that both countries could launch successful electronic attacks against our infrastructure as they each have copies of our own stolen cyberweapons. The Sony hack and WannaCry virus demonstrated North Korea’s proficiency and Symantec confirmed this January that the Iranians used the NSA-developed exploit EternalBlue in its operations. Should we launch a regime-threatening attack against either country, they will respond using our own systems against us.
We have the most powerful military in the world. It is incapable of defending the nation against cyber attacks. The President has made paid scant attention to cyber security, even going so far as to eliminate the White House cyber security coordinator in May of this year. While many in the press are focused on the vulnerability of our electoral system to foreign hacking, it is our physical infrastructure that is most at risk.
We are not in control. We only think we are.
Out Of Control – The Chemical Brothers
Wes Clark Jr. 