The North American electric grid regulator has asked utilities to report how exposed they are to SolarWinds software that is at the center of a suspected Russian hacking operation, and the regulator advised utilities that the vulnerability “poses a potential threat” to parts of the power sector.
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), a not-for-profit regulatory authority backed by the U.S. and Canadian governments, said in a Dec. 22 advisory to electric utilities that there was no evidence indicating that the malicious tampering of SolarWinds software had impacted power systems. But the fact that software made by Texas-based firm SolarWinds is used in the electric sector has made vigilance important, according to NERC.
“At this time, NERC is not aware of any known impacts to bulk power system (BPS) reliability or system outages related to the SolarWinds compromise,” reads the advisory, which CyberScoop obtained.
