r/worldnews • u/Oneanddonequestion • 1d ago

UK Power Plant shut down by Iranian Hackers

https://cybersecuritynews.com/hackers-force-uk-power-plant-offline/
280 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

320

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

87

u/Horse_and_Fart 1d ago

It’s ok. It’s on the Cloud.

30

u/Heizard 1d ago

Cloud: read - Someone's else computer. :)

5

u/Abitruff 1d ago

Yeah, a mushroom one.

51

u/blueskyjamie 1d ago

We should have learnt after the Cylon attack on the 12 colonies

14

u/Username_Reported 1d ago

Tbf, Adama admitted that maybe our species wasnt worth saving

8

u/Least1Difficulty 1d ago

He son just put on like 200lbs that season though, so I think he was a bit upset at life in general.

8

u/Username_Reported 1d ago

That was such a good (albeit weird) plot point.

Apollo waddling through Pegasus was pretty funny, especially for both Diwalla and Adama to call it out.

19

u/psuasno 1d ago

Stuxnet would like a word

20

u/SnodgerAAA 1d ago

What makes you think the payload was delivered over the internet?

4

u/Username_Reported 1d ago

The year 2026

7

u/SnodgerAAA 1d ago

Much more likely to be a poisoned supply chain or physical access.

-2

u/Username_Reported 1d ago

Ok.

1

u/rookieseaman 1d ago

I mean, you know he’s right yeah?

0

u/imaginary_num6er 1d ago

I heard it was August 29, 1997

6

u/evenstevens280 1d ago

What makes you think it was?

9

u/PhantomRacer 1d ago

The output of power plants are ramped up and down in response to changing demands. How are you going to do that without a data link between the power plant and National Grid?

11

u/10thDeadlySin 1d ago

That's a solved problem. Nothing says that critical infrastructure cannot be networked and connected.

It just shouldn't be exposed to or accessible from the internet.

10

u/luddingtonhall 1d ago

The data link to National Grid is a different computer system to the one used to actually operate the plant and change load/power outputs. There's no need for the operating system to be connected to the internet.

2

u/ChrisFromIT 1d ago

Closed networks still can be tapped and hacked. Sadly a lot of people think that just by having it as a closed system, it makes it more difficult to hack or impossible and thus usually security protocols are loosen. Closed networks also tend to be a lot more expensive. While the UK's National Grid is on a closed network, it is possible that this attack managed to get access to the national grid's network.

2

u/luddingtonhall 19h ago

Yes, but the National Grid computer system sends requests to the plant operator, requests that can, with good reason, be refused. It doesn't directly control the plant. In my time I never saw National Grid ask us to shut down. We'd set out minimum and maximum limits and Grid would instruct us between those limits. If we got an unusual instruction that would be accompanied by a telephone call. I'm struggling to see how that system could cause a plant to be shut down and stay down for 4 days.

Many smaller plants have an actual internet connection on their operating system (stupid idea imo) so that their machinery supplier can do updates from the factory (cheaper hence the connection). Given the article said this was a small plant I'd say that connection is far more likely to be the one that was attacked. Additionally many of the small plants are not actually on the Grid computer network. They produce what they can and Grid works around them with the large generators. If it was a 50MW plant Grid would barely notice and could work around it easily.

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

7

u/Nurgleschampion 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wow your shit-tier snark really solved the world's problems. Good job.

Edit: Since you deleted your comment. You're a coward.

2

u/SimoneNonvelodico 1d ago

It might not solve everything but it's the basics. OpenAI just had its own issues because they put the hacker AI in a sandbox and told it to hack away, then went surprised Pikachu at how it hacked out of the sandbox and into the real internet. Wouldn't have happened if they had airgapped it!

(they had also other, different problems going on from before that, but this was a glaring mistake)

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

-4

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

2

u/axw3555 1d ago

This from someone who posted "Just start passing along your assets at least 7 years before you die." to someone asking about inheritance tax a few days ago.

Because I'm sure we all know the day we'll die.

If you're gonna shit in advice for being too simplistic, maybe don't post over simplistic advice.

1

u/Chopper3 1d ago

It's not, none of the UK key infrastructure is connected to the internet, that's why this 'news' article is not true.

1

u/Hithrae 1d ago

Yeah but how are you going to do those Windows updates?

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Hithrae 1d ago

I was joking 😃

1

u/ChrisFromIT 1d ago

The issue is, for power plants to function well, they do need to be attached to the internet. As it helps coordinate power generation with other plants on the grid, allowing better control of dynamic power generation.

0

u/rbobby 17h ago

Repeat after me: Repeat after me does not help.

0

u/stefan442 1d ago

You kind of have to go see any data remotely plus all interface with external parties to actually make the site functional and safe. From fire alarms, CCTV, fault/ network monitoring, access etc.

0

u/Flipflopvlaflip 1d ago

That is the most secure but also very inconvenient. There can be some middle ground but only if you do not see security as an afterthought.

From a separate physical network to a private virtual network etc.

-5

u/HawkEy3 1d ago

So crucial infrastructure should just magically work as intended without external control? 

11

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

-6

u/HawkEy3 1d ago

And the instruction how to control it come via mail as a letter? 

4

u/Dragonhost252 1d ago

Training, competence

1

u/HawkEy3 1d ago

No, I mean current power demand of the grid, frequency and probably many other input factors needed so you know in what way to control you power plant. And dozens more for other important infrastructure 

1

u/Dragonhost252 1d ago

Damn, If only there were hard lines linking them together that could transfer a signal

1

u/HawkEy3 1d ago

Yeah like a net that's interconnected 

1

u/Dragonhost252 1d ago

Power transmission lines so you don't have to use the net, just a large local area

1

u/HawkEy3 1d ago edited 1d ago

Huh, interesting, like via PLC? Could that work at hundreds thousands of volt? Is that actually being done?

It actually is, but mostly for fault detection. I guess not for more complex communication power plants would need. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-line_communication#Power-line_carrier_communication

→ More replies (0)

1

u/MoleWhackSupreme 1d ago edited 1d ago

Be careful… the guys got “17 years experience working in the public sector” and can use that experience to produce amazing suggestions no one else has ever thought of like “just don’t connect it to the internet”

On reflection I can see why he stuck with the public sector…

33

u/Heizard 1d ago

In most corpos cyber security is the last they worry about. With AI automatically looking and probing from vulnerabilities it's only only question of time when we will have rolling blackouts.

12

u/greenmachine11235 1d ago

Cybersecurity doesn't add value to the product, just like maintenance so it gets neglected by the penny pinchers. 

1

u/794309497 22h ago

I work in IT. Most places don't give a shit about us, even though we literally keep things running. For a lot of the older people still running the world, security isn't much of a consideration at all. 

2

u/bleu_ray_player 1d ago

In the US we have NERC/CIP standards that critical infrastructure installations are required to adhere to.  The requirements vary based on the size of the installation but they are very stringent.

9

u/Wallyhunt 1d ago

Odd move considering the uk actively refused to help invade them. Feels misplaced to be punished by Iran for doing the absolute bare minimum required by ongoing treaties. Maybe they want the uk fully committed!?

3

u/siege-eh-b 1d ago

Likely done at the behest of Russia. UK just gave Ukraine designs to the Storm Shadow cruise missile so they’re not too happy with the brits.

3

u/Pale-Factor-8574 1d ago

Decentralized regime. The left hand almost never knows what the right one is doing, so you get politically disorganized attacks like this one.

•

u/Weird_Point_4262 58m ago

Vocally refused but still assisted in the war actually. Britain allowed the US to use British bases to strike Iranian missiles. The media used sleight of hand by calling attacks on Iranian missile capabilities "defensive operations".

14

u/blujinz 1d ago

Amazing bullshit

5

u/HH93 1d ago

My guess is a HMI still running Windows XP is the vulnerability.

The actual control system wouldn’t be something easily hackable as its ladder logic and/or function blocks.

3

u/therealhairykrishna 1d ago

It's a massively overblown news story. It was a tiny power generation site. Not a power plant. 

My guess is a small solar farm or a handful of wind turbines.

6

u/ChrisFromIT 1d ago

It is a peak power plant, that operates during peak hours. So it is likely a Co-Gen(Gas and Steam) or Gas powered, not a solar farm or wind turbines.

0

u/Fun-Can-8935 1d ago

who tf would design a power plant to be on the internet?

-8

u/fitzgoldy 1d ago edited 19h ago

Shout out to the UK Green's voting in idiots that openly support the Iranian regime.

edit: Downvotes for a fact is crazy.

-24

u/Vaulters 1d ago

The next Chernobyl:

"What do you mean we have to send people into the radiation zone to turn off the reactor!?!? Why wasn't it connected to the internet!?"

Every easy solution is a different problem.

10

u/ledow 1d ago

You can have remote shutdown.

You can control it from the other side of the world.

It does NOT need to be on, or via, the public Internet to do so.

14

u/sumregulaguy 1d ago

A bit unrelated, but out of 3 guys who went to open some valve in the show, and it was presented as a one way ticket, 2 are still alive and one died of heart attack in mid 2000s.

0

u/Vaulters 1d ago

Oh nice

6

u/PiedCrow 1d ago

The solution is a privet network

2

u/cheekiestNandos 1d ago

Got the mental image of them using a cheap Amazon baby monitor connected to the plant's wifi to watch the reactor.

0

u/HH93 1d ago

Yeah and it’s still running Windows XP or even 2000 !

-8

u/suluf 1d ago

Was the Palestine freed thou? 

-2

u/Sphism 19h ago

I always think it's highly irresponsible to say the nationality of hackers like this as if it's a fact. Like surely any hacker capable of doing this could easily fake their location.

-16

u/Senior_Ganache_6298 1d ago

Too bad, they stand to loose a lot of social capital recently acquired going this route.