What if Russia or China Cut Off Your Electricity?

ABC News
What if Russia or China Cut Off Your Electricity?
Cybersleuths Reportedly Have Gotten onto U.S. Electric Grid; What Would Your Day Be Like?
By NED POTTER and JONANN BRADY

April 8, 2009 —

It is a morning five or 10 years in the future, and the headlines have been full of news about escalating tensions with Russia or China. You turn on your lights in the morning to find that they, and virtually everything else, have been shut down by cyberspies.

Improbable? Maybe -- but the Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese and Russian spies have penetrated America's electric power grid, planting software bugs that could all but shut down the system in a crisis.

"There are individuals and groups and even state organizations overseas that are working very diligently every day to be able to infiltrate our U.S. sectors," said George Foresman, a former high official of the Department of Homeland Security.

"I think the government has known for several years that China and Russia and other countries have created offensive cyberwar units and have penetrated American networks, including the electric power grid, which is pretty easy to penetrate," said Richard Clarke, a former White House cyber security adviser and an ABC News consultant, on "Good Morning America."

The Chinese and Russian embassies in Washington deny any wrongdoing. And the electric industry, overseen by a group called the North American Electric Reliability Corp., says, "Industry leaders are taking steps in the right direction to improve preparedness and response to potential cyberthreats."

This is not an immediate threat, said security officials who asked not to be named, but they say more needs to be done to protect Americans' electricity.

Start at Home

So what would all this mean to you? If another country actually tried to take down part of the power grid, what would your day be like?

Your day might very well start late -- simply because your alarm clock is electric. You turn on your laptop to go online for information -- but while the laptop has a battery, the wireless router that gets you onto the Web may not.

The phone works, since most telephone networks are not powered by local utilities -- but can you get through to the people you want to reach? The voice signal for more and more calls travels over the Internet, and the Internet was what the cybersleuths used to shut down electric power. You may be able to call long distance but not locally. Or the reverse.

Everywhere you look, you find proof of the old adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You take a shower, for instance, by window light. The water is still clean, since the treatment plant near you has backup power, but if your home has electric heat, you gradually may find yourself running low on hot water.

A Cyber Attack on the Power Grid?

You have a gas stove. That should work, right? Wrong -- it has an electric starter. A generation ago there would have been a pilot light burning all the time.

"This goes directly to the issue of how pervasive electricity is, in ways we never imagined a generation ago," said James Owen of the Edison Electric Institute, which represents power companies in Washington. "We are at the mercy of the very devices we use to make our lives more convenient."

The Outside World

You head outside -- and find traffic a mess. Very few cities or towns have backup power for traffic lights.

Your car works fine, and radio stations, on backup power, are running constant bulletins. But did you fill up your tank last night? The gas stations can't pump anything.

The grocery store is dark, and harried clerks are worried that food will go bad without refrigeration. The cash registers are out too. But if past blackouts are any indication, people are banding together to help each other out. If you can't pay by credit card, the store may take an old-fashioned paper IOU.

Air traffic, said the FAA, would not be in danger: "The whole system is based on redundancies," said the FAA's Paul Takemoto.

Of course, getting to and from airports would be a more frustrating issue, and power in terminal buildings might be limited. It would not be a good day to fly.

Wall Street has backup power, which allows stock prices to tumble in the crisis. When will the power come back on?

"Think of this," said Michael Markulec of Lumeta, an Internet security firm in New Jersey. "You take your valuables, and you put them in a safe deposit box in a bank, where they have all sorts of security systems. We're not protecting our cyberassets the way we protect our physical assets."

The Grid Is Connected to the Net

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• china
• russia
• electricity
• grid
• power
• united
• states
• cyberwar
• cyberthreat
• cyber
• internet
• spyware
• security
• defense

[D1lk]

Ambricourt:

Cyber-offensive warfare decisions - another American conspiracy theory? Note the question, stated as fact, that China is in an adversarial role to the U.S. This presentation must rank as among the crudest pieces of American propaganda.

[Dakedoom]

fucking liar. the united states is doing this to itself, to be able to shut down the internet, initiate martial law and take control of the people

the rockefellers are the main people behind all this

[FunnWolf]

I wonder what % of us people still believe all this intimidation? China and so has half of US ))

[Dakedoom]

@boxingisbest lol

[boxingisbest]

@Dakedoom The united states INVENTED the internet! also they have not closed one single site while china blocks everything from facebook,youtube,google and also they remove words that they think are going to lead to protests against the dictators rule in China. In fact my guess is you must be working for the Chinese government spreading their lies!

[hitsugayafan4life]

We Aren't Even the USA Anymore We're The NORTH AMERiCAN UNION

[pavel280488AA]

fuck usa from russia)))))))00

[xMaXiMuSx]

@ibwpyro13

Lol It's a myth... It's propaganda to pass the internet laws and other stuff..

[Gregman420]

Someone cuts off our power, it would be in the event that there was already open war.. I'd be a little more concerned about the nuclear missiles being tossed around than the fucking power outage.

[1UFAkEfe684]

@ibwpyro13 haha good luck with u will be eaten alive by the Chinese...hahahha