Isn’t very feasible that a virus (worm, Trojan Horse, etc.) be created to bring down the nation’s power grid? Think about how everything is computer controlled, and how so many know about those systems which electonically regulate all industrial processes and/or display the data (or bogus data?) in the control room!
Has this even been considered this time, and even if it is found not to be the case, isn’t a very real fear, overall?
That’s a very good question. I’m sure the major companies have very efficient firewalls, but I also realise there are some very clever hackers out there. It really makes one wonder if the terrorists have their own hackers?
Crystal
Crystal, congrats on your first post! Welcome to the Straight Dope’s Boards! 
- Jinx
I don’t know about hackers, but they’re saying a power surge somewhere around Niagra Falls started it - what about solar activity (my first thought)? Didn’t something similar happen in Ottowa a while back, because the city is essentially sitting on a conductive iron plate?
NOAA’s Space Weather Now page shows no significant solar radiation storms or geomagnetic storms in the past 24 hours.
I don’t believe there is any reason that power companies need to have their generators hooked up to the internet.
I would guess that it’s possible. Even when not connected to the Internet. Since it hasn’t happened, they must have some pretty nifty safeguards.
Well, just talking out of my ass here, I’m sure the computers that control the generators and coordinate the loads throughout the system must be interconnected in order to work together. Whether that’s through the internet proper or some kind of secure system, I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s some Doper somewhere who does. (we’re good like that). I think a virus or worm would be pretty unlikely, but if someone was able to gain access to the control system and introduce some malicious code or even do something as simple as send an fake command to perform some otherwise routine function at an inopportune time and destabilize the system…
I would say the rational answer at this point is “the jury’s still out.”
That is a matter of speculation. Off to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
Yeah, we’d need a Doper who works at a power plant to tell us if the computers which regulate the systems are Windows NT-based. That would be the only way this recent worm could have shut down the grid. Otherwise it would take a well-informed terrorist to know which plants to take down to cause the cascading blackout.
-k
“Yeah, we’d need a Doper who works at a power plant to tell us if the computers which regulate the systems are Windows NT-based.”
Yep, that is one bit of information I would prefer the public didn’t know.
Windows PC’s don’t run generators, turbines, reactors, or transmission systems. It’s not that they’re not stable enough, it’s that they’re not durable enough and don’t have the right kind of I/O circuitry. Maybe they run the billing and tracking systems, but they sure as heck don’t synchronize the grid.
The electronics that does that is specialized, expensive, and not about to fail because some kid decides to exploit TCP Port 135.