Conspiracy Theory

The Wall Street Journal published a story today about Chinese and Russian cyberspies hacking into utility companies' computer systems. This report is flying fast and furious around the Net, and I just got a Forward email about the "syberspies." Folks, if you're going to forward something like that along to me, first of all, don't. But if you just have to forward it, please make sure it's spelled correctly.

I saw a mention of the big blackout of 2003, in which a person believed it to be the result of a terrorist attack, and used that blackout as an illustration of how vulnerable our electric grid is to such attacks.

Some of you who are new here probably don't know that Ken has a degree in Electrical Engineering, and works as a project manager for AEP, one of the largest utility companies in the country. When that blackout happened, it was a big deal in the company, because they were the ones that essentially stopped the blackout from continuing west, when its automated protection systems disconnected completely from the grid. Ken got news of the causes of the situation before the official investigation findings were released, and it was pretty interesting to hear about what happened and why.

You know what caused the blackout? Increased usage during a hot summer day led power lines to heat up and sag into trees that weren't trimmed well enough. As soon as lines touched the trees, they shorted, resulting in power being shunted to other lines, in turn making them hotter and more unstable. These fluctuations resulted in a cascade of shutdowns and outages, exacerbated by both computer failure and operator failure. AEP's automated protection systems recognized what was happening with the grid, and disconnected, stopping the cascade and preventing a surge for demand on AEP's grid, which would have resulted in even more outages.

It all came back to untrimmed trees. Now, unless a terrorist cell infiltrated the companies involved in trimming the trees and maliciously left the trees in question untrimmed while they took a long lunch, there was absolutely no terrorist involvement there whatsoever. That's the problem I have with conspiracy theories. I'd rather find out the rational explanation of something than chalk it up to nebulous threats and nefarious plots, à la Art Bell.

Does that mean that utility companies' computer systems are unhackable? Depends on the system. The websites accessible by consumers for information, bill paying, etc., would probably be vulnerable to the same hackers that get into banking, hospital, and other systems. The systems that control operation, however, are by regulation separate from the other systems. The NRC's (the plant that Ken is involved with is nuclear) cyber security regulations mandate that operational systems be separate from administrative systems which include such components as consumer-accessible sites. It is impossible to access operational systems unless you are physically at the system itself.

So am I worried about terrorists hacking into our accounting systems and wreaking a little havoc there? I suppose it's possible, but it's not something I lose sleep over. It seems that there are worse things that they could come up with. Am I worried about them hacking into our operation systems and taking over control of our power plants and electric grid?

No.