The US government has admitted the nation’s power grid is vulnerable to cyber attack, following reports it has been infiltrated by foreign spies. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper reported that Chinese and Russian spies were behind this “pervasive” breach. It said software had been left behind that could shut down the electric grid. "The vulnerability is something [we] have known about for years," said US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “We acknowledge that… in this world, in an increasingly cyber world, these are increasing risks,” Ms Napolitano added. The WSJ reported that the intruders had not sought to damage the power grid or any other key infrastructure so far, but suggested they could change their approach in the event of a crisis or war.

Security watchers said that, if true, the involvement of the Chinese and Russians in such a scenario would show they were strategically thinking about how either to constrain the US or to inflict more damage if they felt a need to do so. "I think that China recognises if in a very strategic sense you want to ensure you have the ability to exploit another country’s potential weakness or vulnerability, but do it in a way that isn’t confrontational or cause an international crisis, then this is a very good way of doing that," Eric Rosenbach, of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center, told Reuters news agency. The motives behind these potential attacks are undoubtedly military or political in nature, said Tim Mather, chief security strategist for the RSA Conference, the world’s biggest security event.

I've got some thoughts on where this is headed and it is my opinion that this ties in directly with my thoughts on how to take down the internet. Could you do it with a attack on the US power grid? Yes but not totally. So, how does a attacker increase their vectors of attack against the internet? Well if you attack the power grid then you can take out many Colocation facilities. But all of the big players use backup-generators. Next would be to attack the servers in the colocation facilities. This would be very easy for Russia to do since they already have their software installed on millions of servers in the us where the license is held outside of the country. One quick software change in russia could destroy another large part of the internet.

I will write more on this in the future. This concept has receitily turned my hosting business upside down and I am looking for a US homegrown solution instead.