Hackers threaten wind farms and power grid

Wind turbines that power wind farms and smart power grids are at risk of attack from ransom-seeking hackers, according to cyber security researchers exposing new vulnerabilities.

Fresh flaws revealed at the Black Hat cyber security conference show how hackers could use weak security in industrial control systems to stop the energy production by wind farms. These researchers expose vulnerabilities so that companies can fix them, showed how it could be done.

Cyber security experts are warning that ransomware, or malicious software demanding cash payments, could force companies to select between damaging downtime or paying a ransom to a hacker.  Jason Staggs, a researcher, discovered serious flaws at wind farms. For instance, most wind farm controllers did not encrypt all their messages, sometimes used default passwords, and many did not separate the net...