US officials are reportedly privately concerned that foreign hackers stole sensitive information concerning detailed blueprints, known as Black Start, of how the US would restore power in the event of a large blackout.
US officials are reportedly privately concerned that foreign hackers stole sensitive information concerning detailed blueprints, known as Black Start, of how the US would restore power in the event of a large blackout.
The New York Times reports that if the concerns are founded, Russian forces may have a list of targets that they could use to inhibit the US regaining power in a national blackout emergency.
Officials are still unsure what exactly was extracted in the suspected Russian cyberattack, or if it was a simple espionage move, the Times reports.
"This is looking much, much worse than I first feared," Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said.
"The size of it keeps expanding. It’s clear the United States government missed it," he continued.
It is now believed that as many as 250 government networks may have been infiltrated by the Russian government.
They reportedly did this by inserting code into a network management software developed by a Texas company named Solar Winds. Solar Winds has a history of low quality security for its software products, government investigators say.
The incident has raised attention to the apparent vulnerability of U.S. cybersecurity networks.
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