Hackers attack America’s energy sector

The USA has long feared a large-scale cyber attack from Russia against critical infrastructure. Experts have now discovered one of these – but it will be extremely difficult to drive away the attackers.

Potentially at risk: a chemical plant immediately behind a residential building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 2013.

Giles Clarke / Getty

Hackers have succeeded in infiltrating large areas of American energy supply companies and industrial plants with particularly sophisticated malware. It’s the first time hackers have penetrated so deeply into critical infrastructure in the United States — an incident that IT security experts have long feared.