Cyber Attack On US Public Utility System

Tackling the Cyber attacks which are getting a big concern for economies all over the world. Hackers have yet again targeted US with the location of attacker somewhere in Russia. The motive of the attack is still unclear and the US agencies are probing the matter. In the actual attack, the credentials of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system making software company was used. The exact place is traced to be Springfield in Central Illinois.



The cyber attempt is a signal to the security systems that cyber targets are not only the political and strategic offices by the hackers are also aiming public utility systems. The attackers could gain access to the public utility's system through a company which is responsible to make software for the controlling systems. The operators did not suspect any activity until the pump started turning on and off. When authorities came to know about this, efforts were made to recover the system. The attack left a pump burned. This being a serious matter, the SCADA security needs to be boosted.

In the present hacking attempt although the utility serving more than 2000 customers was affected, no loss of customer data is recorded. It is however unexplained why hackers will attempt to hack a small district rather than strategically important places as is the experience until now. This proves that the security of these minor systems also needs a step up.

A similar attack happened in Iran of which US was blamed to the perpetrator. In this hacking attempt, the Uranium enrichment facility of Iran was threatened because of a mysterious Stuxnet virus. This being a major setback to Iran's nuclear program, efforts were done so that these cases do not occur in future. DARPA has increased its budget for cyber security by over 50%.

The hacking attempts are not new in many places; of course they become a cause of concern when national security is put to threat. The counter operations have until now gained an upper hand at these attempts by any country.