At recent Industrial IoT security briefings, the Aurora vulnerability has come up repeatedly. Attendees ask, “Is our country’s power grid safe? How can we protect the grid? What is Aurora?” This post provides a look at Aurora, and the BlackEnergy attack that can exploit Aurora.

In March 2007, the US Department of Energy demonstrated the Aurora vulnerability. (See this video from CNN of the actual test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJyWngDco3g). What is happening?

An electric generator spins an electromagnet (the rotor) inside a coil of wire (the stator) to create electric power.