DoS-attack in the US caused power station failure

Daniel ZimmermannMay 7, 2019

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According to Department of Energy (DOE) report for the first quarter of 2019, some incident caused electrical outages.

“On March 5, an unidentified power company fell victim to a “cyber event” that interfered with operations but stopped short of causing blackouts, according to a DOE filing this week”, — specified in the message.

As says the document, incident took place on the unnamed power station under the jurisdiction of the Western Electricity Coordination Council (WECC).

WECC monitors and controls electrical networks in the series of Western states, including California (Kern and Los-Angeles districts), Utah (Slat-Lake-City district) and Wyoming (Convers district).

Incident occurred on March 5 this year. Blackouts began at 9:12 and finished at 18:57 local time.

Report does not contain any other details.

However, few days ago DOE official confirmed that the event “did not impact generation, the reliability of the grid or cause any customer outages“.

In December 2015, Russian hackers used stolen credentials to enter system and trigger TDOS-attack to target three distributive utilities in Ukraine, for a short time switching off lights for about four million people – it was first attack of such type.

Distributing power plant in Ukraine, which was attacked by Russian hackers in December 2015

Incident in March does not seem to be a part of some coordinated planned campaign, though previously could not be suggested at all that cyberattack can threatens US electrical system that makes incident worth attention.

According to E&E News, attack was performed by exploitation of DoS – vulnerability that already has a patch. What equipment contained vulnerability, is not reported.

The DOS event reflects a concerning uptick in attacks — sophisticated or not — targeting critical infrastructure facilities worldwide, according to Lior Frenkel, CEO and co-founder of industrial cybersecurity firm Waterfall Security Solutions. Tools once exclusively available to nation-state hacking teams have passed into the hands of criminal organizations and the general public, he observed.