Chapter 12 – Can Cyber Warfare Leave a Nation in the Dark? Cyber Attacks Against Electrical Infrastructure

The power grid is perhaps the most important of all the industrial control systems. In this chapter, we discuss the various types of cyber attack that can be employed against this infrastructure. With an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's Aurora Test—where a generator was destroyed by cyber attacks—we describe how such an attack might be accomplished. We conclude the chapter by illustrating how cascading power failures can be engineered by a cyber attack that targets key substations and/or generators.

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