"Homeland Security Dept. Blunder Opened Door to Cybersecurity Attacks on Power and Water Systems"

allgov.com Sometimes even when it’s trying to do the right thing, the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) steps on a rake. A recent miscue by the department could make it easier for someone to bring down the nation’s power grid. A Freedom of Information Act request was filed with DHS for documents on Operation Aurora, which was a cyberattack on Google. The department responded with 800 pages of documents, according to Patrick Tucker at Defense One. However the documents weren’t about Operation Aurora, but were instead on the Aurora Project, which in 2007 demonstrated how easy it would be to disable the nation’s electric and water supply grids. The Aurora Project showed that by opening and closing various circuit breakers on a system, parts are thrown out of synchronization and the system can break.