Hackers Can Cut the Lights With Rogue Code, Researchers Show
Safety device used for electrical distribution worldwide could be hacked to turn off power, according to cybersecurity experts
A power line glows and smokes in a diorama of a city used by Red Balloon Security to demonstrate vulnerabilities in the global electrical grid.
Photographer: Angus Mordant/BloombergAs Ang Cui added more juice to the power grid, overhead electric lines began to glow bright orange. Then, within seconds, the power lines evaporated in a flash of smoke, leaving an entire section of Manhattan in the dark.
No actual buildings or people lost power because, luckily, this was just a simulation — a tabletop diorama of Manhattan complete with tiny copper power lines and the Statue of Liberty relocated to a pared-down Central Park. Cui’s colleagues at Red Balloon Security Inc. had unleashed a few lines of malicious code that knocked out a computer designed to protect electrical lines.