[Infowarrior] - Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not Hackers

[Richard Forno]

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not Hackers
	• By Marcelo Soares
	• November 9, 2009  |
	• 6:15 pm  |
	• Categories: Cybarmageddon!

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/brazil_blackout/

SAO PAULO, Brazil — A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has  
been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of  
a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators  
on two transmission lines. That’s according to reports from government  
regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a  
year.
In a broadcast Sunday night, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes cited  
unnamed sources in making the extraordinary claim that a two-day  
outage in the Atlantic state of Espirito Santo was triggered by  
hackers targeting a utility company’s control systems. The blackout  
affected 3 million people. Hackers also caused another, smaller  
blackout north of Rio de Janeiro in January 2005, the network claimed.


Brazilian government officials disputed the report over the weekend,  
and Raphael Mandarino Jr., director of the Homeland Security  
Information and Communication Directorate, told the newspaper Folha de  
S. Paulo that he’s investigated the claims and found no evidence of  
hacker attacks, adding that Brazil’s electric control systems are not  
directly connected to the internet.

The utility company involved, Furnas Centrais Elétricas, told Threat  
Level on Monday, it “has no knowledge of hackers acting in Furnas’  
power transmission system.”

A review of official reports from the utility, the country’s  
independent systems operator group and its energy regulatory agency  
turns up nothing to support the hacking claim.

The earliest explanation for the blackout came from Furnas two days  
after the Sept. 26, 2007, incident began. The company announced that  
the outage was caused by deposits of dust and soot from burning fields  
in the Campos region of Espirito Santo. “The concentration of these  
residues would have been exacerbated by the lack of rain in the region  
for eight months,” the company said.

Brazil’s independent systems operator group later confirmed that the  
failure of a 345-kilovolt line “was provoked by pollution in the chain  
of insulators due to deposits of soot” (.pdf). And the National Agency  
for Electric Energy, Brazil’s energy regulatory agency, concluded its  
own investigation in January 2009 and fined Furnas $3.27 million  
(.pdf) for failing to maintain the high-voltage insulators on its  
transmission towers.


Cascading electrical failures like the one in Espirito Santo often  
have a number of contributing factors, and it’s possible that the  
poorly maintained insulators were only the most conspicuous element in  
the 2007 incident.

Reports that hackers triggered at least one blackout outside the  
United States first got wide attention last year, based on comments  
made by the CIA’s chief cybersecurity officer, Tom Donahue. He  
declined, however, to identify any country or the specifics of the  
alleged attacks. The blackout claim even made it into a speech given  
by President Obama in May. “In other countries cyberattacks have  
plunged entire cities into darkness,” Obama said, not mentioning the  
cities. In an interview with Threat Level last month, former  
cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke named Brazil as a hack-attack  
blackout victim, but didn’t provide verifiable details.

In some versions of the story, the hackers were trying to extort money  
from the utility. The 60 Minutes broadcast this week — which cited six  
unnamed sources in the intelligence, military and cybersecurity  
communities — was the first to peg the story to specific blackouts.  
CBS did not repeat the extortion claim, reporting instead that the  
location and motives of the hackers are a mystery.

Fallout from the story kept telephones ringing in Brazil’s electricity  
sector Monday. “Everyone’s been calling us all day about it,” said a  
beleaguered spokesman with the National Operator of the Electric System.