"Utilities Look Back To The Future For Hands-On Cyberdefense"

"The aftermath of the cyberattack in Ukraine on Dec. 23, 2015, produced two unexpected lessons that U.S. grid operators have started to take to heart.

After cutting off power to nearly 250,000 homes and businesses in western Ukraine, the cyber terrorists delivered a final punch to the gut. The hackers wrecked some of the digital controls the operators needed to restart the system remotely. An aptly named cyber weapon called "KillDisk" hidden inside the Ukraine system erased parts of the operators' startup software.

But substations across the Ukraine utilities' grid networks still had Soviet-era manual controls, so crews were able to restore power by hand within six hours."

Peter Behr and Blake Sobczak report for EnergyWire July 21, 2016 in the fourth part of a four-part series, "The Hack."

SEE ALSO:

Part 3: "Grid Hack Exposes Troubling Security Gaps For Local Utilities"

Part 2: "How DHS Fell Silent When A Hack Threatened the U.S. Power Grid "

Part 1: "Inside the Diabolical Ukrainian Hack That Put The U.S. Grid On High Alert"