Pipelines Balked When ‘Blinking Red’ Hack Alert Went Off in 2012

A decade ago, after hackers were caught infiltrating natural gas pipeline operations and an al-Qaeda video emerged calling for an “electronic jihad” on U.S. infrastructure, then-Senator Joseph Lieberman tried to sound the alarm.

The system is “blinking red,” Lieberman warned his Senate colleagues during debate on the threat in 2012. “Privately owned and operated cyber infrastructure can well be, and probably some day will be, the target of an enemy attack.”

Joseph Lieberman

Photographer: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg

Led by the Connecticut independent and one-time vice presidential candidate, lawmakers sought to require energy companies to strengthen computer security. But the effort withered under fierce ...