Cyber Risks · Dragos Blog

Threats to Electric Grid are Real; Widespread Blackouts are Not

Summary: Dragos states that media reports claiming state-backed hackers have infiltrated the US electric grid and could cause widespread blackouts are false, tracing the coverage to a July DHS presentation on Russian activity that contained previously reported information on a group Symantec calls Dragonfly and Dragos associates with DYMALLOY and ALLANITE. Those groups focus on information gathering from ICS networks and have not demonstrated disruptive or damaging capabilities, and Dragos notes neither was involved in the 2015 and 2016 Ukraine blackouts.

What you should know: The adversary activity is real and Dragos calls it a prerequisite to a potential future disruptive event, but a destructive incident at one site would require highly tailored tools and would not scale to widespread blackouts - so the gap between what the reporting claimed and what the evidence supports is where a security leader's response should be calibrated.

Read the original at Dragos Blog ↗

Topics
OT / ICS & Critical Infrastructure
Related
Siemens RUGGEDCOM APE1808 Cyber Risks · Nov 12, 2026