Report: Cyber Attacks Caused Power Outages in Brazil

“Electrical blackouts impacting millions of people in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 were caused by hackers targeting control systems, according to the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes.

In a show set to air Sunday night, CBS blames a two-day outage in Espirito Santo in 2007 on a hack attack. The blackout affected three million people. Another, smaller blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005 was also triggered by computer intruders, the network claims.

Reports that hacker-extortionists triggered at least one blackout outside the U.S. first surfaced last year, based on comments made by the CIA’s chief cybersecurity officer, Tom Donahue, who declined to identify any country or the specifics of the alleged attacks. In an interview with Threat Level’s Kim Zetter last month, former cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke publicly named Brazil as a hack attack blackout victim for the first time, but didn’t go into details.”

(Source: Report: Cyber Attacks Caused Power Outages in Brazil | Threat Level | Wired.com)