The Chinese Turned Out My Lights (Maybe)
Remember that terrible blackout in 2003, that took power out from MI to NY and in between?
It was great fun here in Ann Arbor, for a little while. You could walk down the streets of the city and sushi merchants would come out and pretty much give their sushi away. We had an "apocalypse" barbecue that night, where everyone brought all the meat from their freezer or fridge and any alcohol that was cold, and consumed it in one big gluttonous barbecue. I had a non-electric land-line at the time and a gas stove and it was summer time, so I was pretty comfortable for the whole two-day affair. But it quickly turned our freeways heading west (where there was still power) into parking lots and those with electrical phones lost their communication and aside from the gluttony it was a big expensive mess.
Apparently, the Chinese did it.
Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.
One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said that U.S. intelligence officials have told him that the PLA in 2003 gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern United States. The intelligence officials said that forensic analysis had confirmed the source, Bennett said. “They said that, with confidence, it had been traced back to the PLA.” These officials believe that the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year. A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected.