Electrics Vulnerable to Hackers
But those very improvements are making the electricity supply vulnerable to a different kind of peril: computer viruses and hackers who could black out substations, cities or entire states.
Researchers working for the U.S., Canadian and British governments have already sniffed out "back doors" in the digital relays and control room technology that increasingly direct electricity flow in North America.
With a few focused keystrokes, they say, they could shut the computer gear down - or change settings in ways that might trigger cascading blackouts.
Security experts have warned about the grid's growing vulnerabilities before, especially after U.S. National Security Agency hackers showed they could break into grid control networks in 1998.
Researchers say the holes exploited then have gone unpatched. With an expected spate of post-blackout upgrades, the computer-heavy grid will be even more vulnerable to terrorists and hackers, they say.
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