How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid?

coreboarder writes "Recently it was divulged that the Brazilian power infrastructure was compromised by hackers. Then it was announced that it was apparently faulty equipment. A downplay to the global public or an honest clarification? Either way, it raises the question: how vulnerable are we, really? With winter and all its icy glory hurtling towards those of us in the northern hemisphere, how open are we to everything from terrorist threats to simple 'pay me or else' schemes?"

Comments

SCADA only as vulnerable as the OS running it

[bl8n8r]

How vulnerable is it? Face it, most SCADA systems are windows based. If you need more of a hint than that you are in pretty strong denial.

Also, there's no way in hell that an archaic infrastructure like the power grid is going to just turn around and run something else overnight. The reasons are simple. Change. Computer security changes things and bases the argument for change mostly on hypotheticals. It's easy for people to shoot it full of holes because you can't prove something 'will' happen.

What's worse, is most places don't even know they are cracked. People think since their system booted fine and isn't acting slow, everything is hunky-dory. malware is getting leaner and systems are getting faster and you don't notice when something is hitting the wire, cpu or disk anymore. We're pretty well f#cked on the power grid.