Staged Hack Causes Generator to Self-Destruct

An anonymous reader writes "It has been revealed that in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security exercise codenamed 'Aurora' conducted in March of this year, researchers were able to cause a power generator to self-destruct remotely via a hack which changed the operating cycle of the generator. 'Government sources said changes are being made to both computer software and physical hardware to protect power generating equipment. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is conducting inspections to ensure all nuclear plants have made the fix. Industry experts also said the experiment shows large electric systems are vulnerable in ways not previously demonstrated.'"

Comments

I've seen this before.

[Anonymous Coward]

One time I put my car into reverse while traveling 70 mph on the freeway. It was a very exciting learning experience.

Re:Bruce Willis will prevent this from ever happen

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else immediately think of Live Free or Die Hard when reading this? No, because you're the only one who watched that movie.

Re:Bruce Willis will prevent this from ever happen

[morgan_greywolf]

Did anyone else immediately think of Live Free or Die Hard when reading this? No, because you're the only one who watched that movie. I did....oh wait, did you say that was supposed to be a movie? Gak!

Operating System?

[trelanexiph]

From TFA "researchers were able to cause a power generator to self-destruct remotely via a hack which changed the operating cycle of the generator"

You mean they upgraded it to Microsoft Windows Vista?

Re:Remotely caused power generator to self-destruc

[morgan_greywolf]

Hi! This is Chief Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla of the Grammar Police. Where do we send your check, Lt. Permaculture?

Re:Um, WHY was the generator on the internet?!!

[jollyreaper]

You've also got to remember, all it takes is one employee with a grudge, or who you aren't paying enough, and all the air gaps in the world won't help you. There is never a single solution. Fire employees, turn off computers. I'm feeling grumpy.

Re:this should not be possible

[legirons]

You mean they need to jump a motorcycle into the guard post from an adjacent building, break into the control centre, and run nmap on a terminal on the internal network?

Re:It is mostly bunk

[wawannem]

whereas big power plant generators are 1000 MW or more.

Heh... that's it? I once heard of a professor somewhere that was able to build a portable generator, small enough to fit in the rear half of a small car, capable of outputting 1,210 MW...

Re:It is mostly bunk

[cdrguru]

Nonsense. Do you understand what the output of such a generator would be?

I believe it is very high voltage with not-so-much current. Well over 100,000 volts.

The separation between the output terminals would be larger than the space occupied by the car.

OK, what if I'm wrong and it is lots and lots of current. At 1200MW the output current would require something that isn't going to fit in a car to connect to the output terminals.

Either way, it isn't fitting in the space of a car. Not even an Excursion.