UPDATE: Ministry says no power grids complain of violations

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MOSCOW, Jun 17 (PRIME) -- Russian power companies, which ensure protection of their information systems from outside attacks on their own, have not complained of them, an Emergy Ministry official told PRIME on Monday.

“The Energy Ministry has received no information about attacks on the power grids. Protection of state information resources is ensured by the relevant authorities. The bulk of critically important power facilities are connected to the state security system,” the spokesperson said.

“Russian power grids have a high protection level. We want to point out that in order to liquidate such risks, we carry out methodical successful work to apply Russian technologies and equipment.”

The New York Times reported earlier that U.S. special services had escalated efforts to embed malware into Russia’s power grids, but U.S. President Donald Trump denied the information in a Twitter post and called the daily’s story as an act of treason.

The newspaper responded that accusing the press of treason is dangerous. The daily said it had described the article to the government before publication.

An official at System Operator of the United Power System (SO UPS) said, “Technological systems of SO UPS have no direct Internet access, and attacks from the global Web are not dangerous for us. Plus, efforts of our information security specialists reduce the chance of a successful attack.”

SO UPS is a specialized organization, with a single-person regulatory approach to centralized operational dispatching management of the technological mode of the country’s United Power System.

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