A British power plant was shut down for four days after an unprecedented cyber attack by Iran-linked hackers, according to reports. The exact location has not been revealed due to security concerns, but sources told The Telegraph that the facility was disabled “while staff fought to bring it back online” after the attack.
Small plant, no wider impact
It is understood that the plant affected was not one of the biggest sites in the country. Due to the relatively small nature of the plant, the outage had no impact on the UK’s wider power supply or energy generation.
The incident is thought to have taken place in July, at the same time as a series of attacks on US water infrastructure. Those attacks affected 12 states and caused concern in the White House.
Government response and assurances
In response, the Government briefed the chief executives of power companies and wrote to businesses with advice, direction and next steps.
A Government source told The Telegraph: “We have thresholds for important generators to legally notify us of cyber activity, and this site is nowhere near. It’s a very small scale site, less than a rounding error compared to grid capacity.”
A Government spokesman said: “The UK has a highly resilient energy system. We work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure and ensure the highest security standards.
“This story refers to an incident impacting a small-scale energy generator, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system.”
