Miscreants Already Gaming SCADA

For all the hype that has surrounded the issue of SCADA security, a cycle that yours truly has contributed to heartily given the evidence he's been presented by qualified experts, there haven't been a ton of real-world examples to point to about the real potential for critical grid infrastructure systems to come under actual cyber-attacks.

The April article in the Wall St. Journal which confirmed that hackers had infiltrated the U.S. national power grid - with one unnamed U.S. intelligence source placing blame squarely on China - fairly well blew the lid off the issue after years of far more low-profile incidents and reports. Most notably, a CIA official said in a 2008 speech that electronic attacks on power systems in an unnamed foreign nation had previously been successful, crippling electricity in multiple cities in the region as part of a targeted set of cyber-attacks.