CIA Admits Hackers Caused Multi-City Power Outage

Security experts have long said critical public infrastructure needs to be protected from the threat of cyber attacks. In a rare public address, the CIA has admitted hackers do strike and have caused at least one power outage affecting multiple cities. Digital Journal -- Water, power and transportation: They are critical to the heartbeat of any city and when compromised, they can affect a great number of people. And as the CIA now admits, they do happen. In a written statement provided after making an appearance at a conference in New Orleans, CIA senior analyst Tom Donahue, said, "We have information that cyber attacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet." Donahue was speaking to an audience of 300 U.S., UK, Swedish, and Dutch government officials, engineers and security managers who work within the water, oil, gas and electric industries across North America. He admits the CIA thoroughly weighed the benefits and risks of making this information public and decided public disclosure was best. "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands," Donahue said. "We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge." Donahue only scratched the surface of the issue and did not elaborate on what public infrastructure had been hacked. He also did not directly address how many people have been affected by cyber attacks, where or when they happened. Some estimates peg the cost of cyber terrorism to companies worldwide at more than $20 billion per year. As InformationWeek reports, Howard Schmidt, a former Microsoft executive and government cyber security adviser, said there are ongoing concerns about infrastructure vulnerabilities. He also said 85 per cent of critical U.S. infrastructure is controlled by the private sector, adding "No one should be minimizing this issue." Schmidt's comments were made after a private screening of a new documentary called The New Face Of Cybercrime (preview below):