Hackers can cut the lights with rogue code, researchers show

Red Balloon’s findings underscore the need for better cybersecurity in critical infrastructure, where flaws in computer networks that can be remotely access “can be tooled-up into a cyber weapon with very real physical impact”, Cui said. — AFP Relaxnews

As Ang Cui added more juice to the power grid, overhead electric lines began to glow bright orange. Then, within seconds, the power lines evaporated in a flash of smoke, leaving an entire section of Manhattan in the dark.

No actual buildings or people lost power because, luckily, this was just a simulation – a tabletop diorama of Manhattan complete with tiny copper power lines and the Statue of Liberty relocated to a pared-down Central Park. Cui’s colleagues at Red Balloon Security Inc had unleashed a few lines of malicious code that knocked out a computer designed to protect electrical lines.