Ukraine says potent Russian hack against power grid thwarted

By FRANK BAJAK
AP Technology Writer

BOSTON (AP) — Ukrainian officials say Russian military hackers tried to knock out power to millions of Ukrainians last week in a long-planned attack but were foiled. The Ukrainians say the Russian hackers succeeded in penetrating and disrupting the industrial control system of one high-voltage power station but people defending the station were able to prevent any power outages. Top Ukrainian cybersecurity official Victor Zhora said Tuesday the threat was serious and it looks as though the Ukrainians were very lucky. Officials say the hackers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency used an upgraded version of malware first seen in its successful 2016 attack that caused outages in Kyiv.