Cyberattack in Spain and Portugal? Is Russia behind sudden power outage leading to blackouts?
Spain and Portugal faced major power outages that disrupted hospitals, factories, nuclear power plants and public transportation systems on Monday.
Spain and Portugal faced major power outages that disrupted hospitals, factories, nuclear power plants, traffic lights, and public transportation systems on Monday.
As of early Monday afternoon, many areas of the Iberian Peninsula remained without electricity, with reports of outages extending from Madrid to Lisbon.
Amid Spain power outage, Director of Spanish transmission system operator Red Eléctrica Eduardo Prieto stated that a “very strong oscillation in the electrical network” let to country's power system to “disconnect from the European system, and the collapse of the Iberian electricity network at 12:38,” which resulted in the blackout.
Spain, Portugal power outage: Was it a cyberattack?
Prieto declined to comment on whether a hack might have played a role in the outage or to speculate on what might have caused the power surge. He said it will take six to ten hours for service to be entirely operational throughout Spain, However, the flow of power has been restored in some areas.
“At the moment, there is nothing that allows us to say that there is any kind of sabotage or cyberattack,” stated Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, as per Politico.
Ribera further stated that they are exercising extreme caution in their investigation and will keep investigating what exactly caused this catastrophe, which is among the worst to have occurred in Europe in a long time.
According to António Leitão Amaro, the Portuguese Presidency Minister, the imbalance seems to be caused by “a problem in Spain's transportation network, the exact details of which have yet to be identified,” reported news agency Lusa.
Also Read: Photos: Chaos in Spain, Portugal as nations plunged into darkness after massive power outage
Is Russia behind Spain, Portugal power outages?
Cyberattacks have targeted Spain in light of its opposition to Israel's war in Gaza and its backing of Kyiv against Russian aggression. The National Cryptologic Center and the Defense Staff-affiliated Joint Cyberspace Command, which is in charge of cybersecurity, are investigating the blackout.
This incident reminds of the earlier power grid attacks, particularly in Ukraine. About 230,000 Ukrainians suffered power outage in December 2015 due to a concerted cyberattack that was assigned to the Russian hacking collective Sandworm. A year later, Kyiv saw more outages as a result of a similar attack that used the Industroyer malware, SOFREP reported.
However, there is no confirmation yet about Russia's involvement in the Spain and Portugal power outages.
Portugal's E-Redes and Spain's Red Eléctrica grid operators are working with Cybersecurity officials to find the cause of blackouts. The severity and abruptness of the outage have sparked worries about how susceptible vital infrastructure is to digital attacks.
