How to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S

Academic Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S.


A Chinese student, Wang Jianwei, above, and his professor, wrote an academic paper on the vulnerability of the American power grid to a computer attack. Scientists said the paper was merely a technical exercise.

By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZA
Published: March 20, 2010

It came as a surprise this month to Wang Jianwei, a graduate engineering student in Liaoning, China, that he had been described as a potential cyberwarrior before the United States Congress.

Ken Cedeno for The New York Times

Larry M. Wortzel, a military strategist, recently drew attention to the paper.

Larry M. Wortzel, a military strategist and China specialist, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10 that it should be concerned because “Chinese researchers at the Institute of Systems Engineering of Dalian University of Technology published a paper on how to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S.â€