Video: US power grid could be seized by hackers
A new video released by the Department of Homeland Security details the devastating results of a test "cyber attack" on a power plant's control system -- a highly effective method terrorists could possibly employ to knock out large swaths of the US power grid, experts say.
"In 2002, the current Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, and former CIA Director James Woolsey, were among more than 50 computer and security experts who begged President Bush for a massive cyber defense program to avoid a national disaster," reported CNN's Jean Meserve on Anderson Cooper Live. "Five years later, there is no such program."
An expert on power plant control systems, Joe Weiss, told CNN that Iran and Pakistan -- nations from which terrorists could potentially launch an attack -- employed near-identical power systems.
"They have the same training, the same passwords," Weiss said of those countries' power engineers.
"What's new here," said Robert Jamison, acting Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, "is that through a cyber atttack you can actually get in and do physical damage to equipment. That's the new piece of this."
Asked about about preparedness efforts, Jamison said he couldn't say the threat had been eliminated, "but I can say that a lot of the risk has been taken off the table," he added.
If damage from an attack is widespread enough, a mass power outage could have an epic impact on the US economy.
According to Scott Borg of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, if power were out in one third of the country for at least three months, it would be "equivalent to 40 to 50 large hurricanes striking all at once."
"It's greater economic damage than any modern economy has ever suffered," he said. "Greater than the Great Depression."
Vice President Cheney is among those reported to have watched the new video, according to the Associated Press, which showed a generator self-destructing after researchers remotely changed its operating cycle and it went "out of control."
"Unfortunately, the systems can't be very stand-alone' they have to connect to different systems for metering purposes, for billing purposes, for efficiency," said former US Cyber-Security Chief Amit Yoran. "You can't just move a pen and say 'thy shalt be secured tomorrow.' It isn't that simple."
The Department of Homeland Security's cyber-security budget is expected to decrease next year, according to CNN.
Read the full story from The Associated Press.
The following video reports are from The Associated Press and CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, both broadcast on September 26.
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