Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls, the newspaper said, citing current and former U.S. national security officials.
The intruders have not sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure but officials said they could try during a crisis or war, the paper said in a report on its website.
"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," a senior intelligence official told the Journal. "So have the Russians."
We need the capabilityand authorization to respond in kind. But we also can't allow whoever did this to think they can wage war on us in this dimension without consequences in the non-cyber world. If we can't respond with cyber-warfare, we will need the determination to respond with missiles and bombs against whoever wages war like this on us. If the program that knocks out the power grid of the east coast originates in China, the Three Gorges Dam should be turned into rubble. If the Russians are responsible, we mine their ports. And that's just the first response, in my view.
We've had our notice. There is no excuse for falling prey to such an attack. Maybe some of the massive spending spree we're on could be used to harden our electric grid and other critical infrastructure vulnerable to cyber attacks.
