Hackers linked to Iran successfully forced a British power plant offline for four days last month, marking what is believed to be the first known cyberattack to completely shut down a power-generating facility in the United Kingdom, according to a report by The Telegraph.
The breach is being viewed by officials as the most successful cyber operation of its kind against British energy infrastructure to date. Hackers associated with the Iranian regime are suspected of carrying out the attack.
The incident occurred at approximately the same time that water infrastructure across 12 US states was targeted in a series of cyberattacks, developments that reportedly raised concerns within the White House.
British authorities have withheld the identity and location of the power station for security reasons. The facility was reportedly relatively small, and its shutdown therefore posed no significant danger to the country’s overall electricity supply. Workers spent four days restoring operations at the site.
Following the attack, British government officials briefed executives at power companies and reached out to businesses with instructions and recommendations for dealing with potential cyber threats. The National Cyber Security Centre, the public-facing cybersecurity division of GCHQ, was also notified.
The NCSC would not address the specific attack. Intelligence officials in both Britain and the United States have repeatedly cautioned that cyber operatives connected to Iran, Russia, China and North Korea routinely attempt to penetrate government networks and critical infrastructure.
Britain has previously experienced major cyber incidents affecting hospitals and other NHS systems, schools and industrial facilities. Manufacturing operations at Jaguar Land Rover have also been disrupted, while foreign hackers have succeeded in obtaining customer information from retailers and voter data maintained by the Electoral Commission.
Until the latest incident, however, no publicly known cyberattack had succeeded in bringing a British electricity-generating facility completely offline.
According to The Telegraph, the operation apparently was not designed to cause widespread disruption to the British public and attracted little attention while it was unfolding. Investigators are reportedly considering whether the attack was instead intended as a demonstration of capability by hackers connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, showing that they could infiltrate British networks and disable sensitive infrastructure.
The United Kingdom operates dozens of smaller generating stations connected to the national electricity grid. Many are gas-powered facilities used only when necessary, including during periods when weak winds reduce the amount of electricity produced by wind turbines.
Because of the structure of Britain’s power network, an extended shutdown at one small facility would generally have little effect on the national grid. Hospitals and some industrial facilities also maintain independent generators to provide electricity when necessary.
The NCSC urged British organizations in March to review and strengthen their cybersecurity defenses amid heightened international tensions.
Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC, revealed in June that the agency had responded to more than 200 cyberattacks against Britain’s critical national infrastructure during the preceding year.
A government source sought to emphasize the limited size of the power station involved in the latest incident.
“We have thresholds for important generators to legally notify us of cyber activity, and this site is nowhere near. It’s a very small scale site, less than a rounding error compared to grid capacity.”
A British government spokesman similarly stressed that the cyberattack never posed a broader danger to the country’s power supply.
“The UK has a highly resilient energy system. We work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure and ensure the highest security standards. This story refers to an incident impacting a small-scale energy generator, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system.”
{Matzav.com}
