WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday it was helping Ukraine investigate an apparent attack last month on the country’s power grid that caused a blackout for 80,000 customers.
Experts have widely described the Dec. 23 incident at western Ukraine’s Prykarpattyaoblenergo utility as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. Ukraine’s SBU state security service has blamed Russia for the incident, while U.S. cyber firm iSight Partners linked it to a Russian hacking group known as “Sandworm.”
In an advisory, DHS said they had linked the blackout to malicious code detected in 2014 within industrial control systems used to operate U.S. critical infrastructure. There was no known successful disruption to the U.S. grid, however.
DHS said the “BlackEnergy Malware” appears to have infected Ukraine’s systems with a spear phishing attack via a corrupted Microsoft Word attachment.
The DHS bulletin from the agency’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT, is the first public comment about the Ukraine incident.
A report released by Washington-based SANS Inc over the weekend concluded hackers likely caused Ukraine’s six-hour outage by remotely switching breakers in a way that cut power, after installing malware that prevented technicians from detecting the intrusion. The attackers are also believed to have spammed the Ukraine utility’s customer-service center with phone calls in order to prevent real customers from communicating about their downed power.
DHS and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
(Reporting by Dustin Volz and Jim Finkle; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Andrew Hay)
Russia is cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine this week and could also stop providing coal to the nation as a dispute over a blackout in Crimea escalates.
Crimea, the subject of an ongoing quarrel between the countries, has been relying on emergency power generators since its main supply was attacked over the weekend, Reuters reported. It’s not known who was responsible for attacking the power supply, and the New York Times reported that millions of residents of the peninsula are still without electricity.
The BBC reported there are also water shortages in Crimea, and the Ukraine has stopped delivering goods to the peninsula in the Black Sea.
Tensions between the two nations have been high since Russia annexed the peninsula last year. Russia doesn’t border the territory by land. Ukraine does.
Protesters are preventing repair work from being done. The New York Times report indicates the activists — Crimean Tatars and Ukranian nationalists — want Russia to release political prisoners and permit global organizations to review human rights in the territory.
According to Reuters, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak claimed that the Ukraine was not doing enough to help crews restore power to the territory. He called the inaction a crime and politically motivated.
Ukraine lawmakers, speaking to Reuters, called suggestions that the government was backing the protesters “absolutely groundless.”
A new report shows that power outages in the United States increased 15% in 2013.
The Eaton Blackout Tracker Annual Report showed that for the 5th straight year California lead the nation in power outages. Texas finished second followed by Michigan. The average length of a power outage last year was 86 minutes leading to an average cost per blackout of $690,200.
“The Blackout Tracker Annual Report illustrates the scope and severity of power outages across the country and the serious consequences that can arise for businesses when the lights go out,” said Mike DeCamp, senior marketing communications manager for Eaton’s Power Quality Division. “With electrical power outages, surges and spikes estimated to cost the U.S. economy $150 billion, it’s more important than ever for companies of all sizes to invest in reliable power backup solutions.”
The White House weighed in on the impact of the 2013 blackouts as a way to encourage people to have a backup power source. The White House said the blackouts caused by harsh weather cost the economy up to $33 billion a year.
The report also included some of the wackiest reasons for blackouts. In Redondo Beach, Caliifornia, wild parrots who roosted on an overhead line knocked out power to 6,100 customers for over three hours. A man who went on a rampage with a bulldozer in Clallam County, Washington took out a 70 foot electric pole and left thousands in the dark for hours.
