It has been known for a while now that the outdated systems that operate our Nation’s power grid lack the ability to stop foreign or domestic intrusions into their networks via the Internet.  CIA official, Tom Donahue, told the an audience at the SANS security trade conference in New Orleans this past Friday that hackers have shutdown and held hostage foreign power grids, even shutting down multiple cities power, and sometimes extorting hundreds of millions of dollars from these foreign power companies and governments just to keep the whole event secret.

Donahue pointed to the aged SCADA systems that control pretty much all of the nations infrastructure, from dams to public transport - save communication systems.  These SCADA systems have fell under increased scrutiny in the past couple of years, with exploits in the system being shown off at DefCon and by the Dep. of Homeland Security who showed a video of a generator effectively melting down because a contracted hacker was able to take over the system and send the generator into overdrive.  The CIA, however, noted that a hacker using the Internet did not need the SCADA system and it’s vulnerabilities alone to create havoc among a nation’s infrastructure.

Many believe that the CIA would not have made such information, about the exploitations in foreign country’s power grids, public if it weren’t for our own security holes being so prevalent.  Being that our nations infrastructure is so large, was pretty much built all at once, and is so ingrained into our daily lives I find it difficult to believe that in today’s political climate anything effective could really be done to prevent what is sure to be coming - down the road.

[Forbes]