NSA: China, Other Countries ALREADY Can Shutdown US Grid; Congress Unable to Deal With Threat

By Cory Bennett. Policymakers are searching for ways to defend the nation’s power grid from a major cyberattack, amid concerns the industry’s digital defenses are dangerously lagging and underfunded.

Security experts warn that energy companies, while attuned to the threat, are scrambling to play catch-up, leaving the all-important power grid exposed to hackers.

On Capitol Hill, the threat of a major power grid hack has mostly gone with little notice, sidelined by the bold cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, a series of hacks across the health insurance industry and the devastating intrusions at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), thought to be the largest ever digital theft of government data. . .

National Security Agency (NSA) Director Adm. Michael Rogers acknowledged in a congressional hearing that China and likely “one or two” other countries are currently sitting on the grid, with the ability to literally turn out the lights if they wanted to.

Rogers said these states, which likely include Russia and possibly Iran, “are deterred only by the fear of U.S. retaliation.” (Read more from this story about how Congress has failed to respond to other countries being able to shutdown US grid HERE)

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State Department: 80% of Attacks from China, Hacking Will Continue

By Bill Gertz. American companies doing business in China will face a continuing threat to their intellectual property under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s security policies, according to a State Department security report.

China’s large-scale information hacking is not limited to recent incidents like the theft of Office of Personnel Management records on 2.1 million federal workers, according to the report by department’s diplomatic security office produced for the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

Hacking is part of a much broader trend with an estimated 80 percent of all cyberattacks against Americans coming from China, the report says, noting that, despite the recent agreement by Mr. Xi to curb intellectual property theft, “threats to [intellectual property] are unlikely to disappear soon.”

The report adds, “Visitors to China should have no expectations of privacy. Taxis, hotel rooms, and meeting spaces are all subject to on-site and remote technical monitoring. Furthermore, the Chinese government’s access to infrastructure means that all forms of communication, including phone calls, faxes, emails and text messages, as well as Internet browsing history, are likely monitored.” (Read more from this story HERE)