US power company denies hacker's wind turbine claim
- Reduce text size Decrease text size
- Increase text size Increase text size
- Print article Print
- Jump to comments Comment
- Share this article Share
- Email article to a friend Email
A hacker claims they accessed the control system of a wind turbine, but the company that operates it says there is no evidence
A power company in the US says there is no evidence to support a hacker's claim that they accessed the control system for a wind turbine that it operates.
As first reported by IDG News, somebody claiming to be a former employee of NextEra Energy Resources posted what appeared to be details of the control system online. They said they had been "illegitimately" fired by the company, and wanted to embarrass its owners.
However, the company says that there is no evidence to suggest that the hacker had sufficient access to cause any damage. "We have not seen any evidence of a breach," a company spokesperson said.
The ability of hackers to access the control systems of energy infrastructure is a matter of concern, as it would allow them to cause considerable harm.
In related news, an Iranian military commander has accused engineering giant Siemens of providing details of its control system to US and Israeli authoritiess, who they accused of building the Stuxnet worm that was discovered at Iranian nuclear facilities last year (Stuxnet is designed specifically to attack Siemens-built control systems).
"The investigations show the source of the Stuxnet virus originated in America and the Zionist regime," said Gholamreza Jalali, according to an Iranian newspaper. "The Siemens company must be held accountable and explain how and why it provided the enemies with the information about the codes of SCADA software and paved the way for a cyber attack against us."
