US power plants vulnerable to cyberattack

When federal researchers discovered that outside hackers could take control of the generators used to produce electricity in the US and destroy them, analysts warned that a coordinated assault on the grid could blackout large regions and cause devastation akin to scores of hurricanes striking at once. Regulators asked utilities to fix that design flaw, as they have with others discovered later. Now, four years since that first warning, experts say that power plants – along with financial institutions, transportation systems and other infrastructure – have become even more vulnerable. The economic damage from a single wave of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure could exceed $700 billion – or the cumulative toll of 50 major hurricanes ripping into the nation simultaneously