Dr. Conca reports that last week an anti-nuclear group began releasing information it hacked from a South Korean company that operates several nuclear power plants. The hackers - apparently not of North Korean origin - demanded that the company take their nuclear plants offline by Christmas. Or else. Never mind that there is nothing the hackers can do to a nuclear plant. Conca assumes that the group thought getting the words - nuclear - and - hacking - in the same headline would be enough to cause chaos and fear throughout the free world. The world press will certainly try further fear mongering, to their detriment.
Everyone is wary about calling these hackers a terrorist group, but trying to blackmail nuclear plants is pretty dumb and criminal. As is usual in such case, another narcissist has apparently convinced easily memed followers to do the criminal acts. Fortunately, no one needs to worry this time about any danger from these plants being hacked. Nothing bad can happen to the reactors.
The hackers certainly did not get the panicked response they were looking for. The hackers can be forgiven for not knowing that nuclear plant operations and safety systems at nuclear plants are still analog, just like in the United States. The only systems that are digital, and connected to the internet, are administrative things like personnel files, procedures, e-mails, and environmental and other data acquisition, displaying and reporting. Officials quickly moved to dispel public fears. It is 100 per cent impossible that a hacker can stop nuclear power plants by attacking them because the control monitoring system is totally independent and closed, a KHNP official re-iterated recently. In addition, the physical security of these plants is managed by normal physical access controls, which also cannot be disrupted by hacking.
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