In January, the CIA briefed 300 government and industry representatives from around the world about the risks of cyber attacks. During that briefing, the CIA discussed several incidents where cyber attackers broke into electric utilities overseas and demanded extortion payments. In one incident, the attackers turned off the lights across multiple cities. The CIA is now involved in an international hunt for the skilled cyber terrorists behind this massive extortion plot. Our intelligence sources tell us that the utilities never paid the ransom. While the psychological, financial and economic impact of these attacks has not been assessed or publicly disclosed, the fact that at least three of these attacks were successful will weigh heavily on the minds of utility executives.
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