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Cyber Attacks on US Power Plants

Washington (July 9, 2017): Hackers working for a foreign government recently breached at least a dozen of US power plants, including the Wolf Creek nuclear facility in Kansas, said US officials.

The rivals could be positioning themselves to eventually disrupt the nation’s power supply, warned the officials, who noted that a general alert was distributed to utilities a week ago. Adding to those concerns, hackers recently infiltrated an unidentified company that makes control systems for equipment used in the power industry, an attack that officials believe may be related.

The chief suspect is Russia, according to three people familiar with the continuing effort to eject the hackers from the computer networks. One of those networks belongs to an ageing nuclear generating facility known as Wolf Creek — owned by Westar Energy Inc, Great Plains Energy Inc, and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc — on a lake shore near Burlington, Kansas.

The possibility of a Russia connection is particularly worrying, former and current official s say, because Russian hackers have previously taken down parts of the electrical grid in Ukraine and appear to be testing increasingly advanced tools to disrupt power supplies.

On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “We don’t pay attention to such anonymous fakes.”

The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation said they are aware of a potential intrusion in the energy sector. The alert issued to utilities cited activities by hackers since May.

“There is no indication of a threat to public safety, as any potential impact appears to be limited to administrative and business networks,” the government agencies said in a joint statement.

The Department of Energy also said the impact appears limited to administrative and business networks and said it was working with utilities and grid operators to enhance security and resilience.

In addition, the operational controls at Wolf Creek were not pierced, according to government officials. “There was absolutely no operational impact to Wolf Creek,” Jenny Hageman, a spokeswoman for the nuclear plant, said in a statement. “The reason that is true is because the operational computer systems are completely separate from the corporate network,” she added.

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