Staged Hack Causes Generator to Self-Destruct 258
An anonymous reader writes "It has been revealed that in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security exercise codenamed 'Aurora' conducted in March of this year, researchers were able to cause a power generator to self-destruct remotely via a hack which changed the operating cycle of the generator. 'Government sources said changes are being made to both computer software and physical hardware to protect power generating equipment. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is conducting inspections to ensure all nuclear plants have made the fix. Industry experts also said the experiment shows large electric systems are vulnerable in ways not previously demonstrated.'"
I've seen this before. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Bruce Willis will prevent this from ever happen (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bruce Willis will prevent this from ever happen (Score:3, Funny)
Operating System? (Score:3, Funny)
You mean they upgraded it to Microsoft Windows Vista?
Re:Remotely caused power generator to self-destruc (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Um, WHY was the generator on the internet?!! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:this should not be possible (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It is mostly bunk (Score:5, Funny)
Heh... that's it? I once heard of a professor somewhere that was able to build a portable generator, small enough to fit in the rear half of a small car, capable of outputting 1,210 MW...
Re:It is mostly bunk (Score:3, Funny)
I believe it is very high voltage with not-so-much current. Well over 100,000 volts.
The separation between the output terminals would be larger than the space occupied by the car.
OK, what if I'm wrong and it is lots and lots of current. At 1200MW the output current would require something that isn't going to fit in a car to connect to the output terminals.
Either way, it isn't fitting in the space of a car. Not even an Excursion.