Ukraine Confirms December Kiev Blackout Was Cyber-Sabotage

Ukrainian power looks all the more vulnerable as confirmations come in that a blackout last month was caused by a cyber-attack.

The blackout cut off power to parts of Kiev just before midnight on 17  December 2016 and lasted for a little more than an hour.  At the time UkrEnergo, Ukraine’s national power company, told customers it was unsure if this was a cyber-attack or merely equipment failure.

The government investigation is apparently not yet complete but an investigation by Information Systems Security Partners (ISSP) concluded that the blackout was the result of sabotage.

ISSP said that hackers shut down the devices which allowed the central operators to speak to substations. Once the hack was pulled off, engineers could no longer speak to the substation remotely but had to physically go to Pivnichna substation to reset it. The researchers believe that this was an experiment rather than a full-scale malicious attack.