Off Beat: Cyber secure in Oroville

When you think of cyber warfare, you usually don't think of the Mid-Valley, unless, of course, it's Beale Air Force Base.

There's a good chance they have a high level of cyber security there. At least you'd hope so.

But what about elsewhere?

How about the South Feather Water and Power Agency?

Don't know about that agency? Well, it's in Oroville. And its South Feather Power Project consists of eight dams and four powerhouses, plus miles of tunnels, canals and roads.

It is located in Plumas, Butte and Yuba counties on the south fork of the Feather River; on Lost Creek — a tributary to the South Fork; and on Slate Creek — a tributary to the North Yuba River.

Project reservoirs can store about 170,650 acre-feet of water and can generate about 120 megawatts of electricity. It used to be known as the Oroville-Wyandotte Irrigation District.

So it's not a minor player in North State water issues.

But something odd happened to South Feather in December.

It was the victim of a cyber attack and reported the incident to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which licenses the South Feather project.

In a letter to FERC's San Francisco office, South Feather noted that "an unknown entity" had tried "to gain access to SFWPA's computer network" on Dec. 14 at 5:30 p.m.

"These attempts failed and the ... network was disconnected from the Internet until it was determined that the assault had ceased," the letter said. "Because the assault failed, there was no damage or loss of system integrity arising from this incident."

South Feather's Internet connection is separate from "its hydropower project's SCADA system," the letter said.

SCADA is short for supervisory control and data acquisition.

Last month, FERC in San Francisco responded in a letter to South Feather, noting that it "took appropriate action to prevent unauthorized access to (the) computer network."

All in all, very mysterious.

No respect

Even on his way out of Congress, your man in D.C., Wally Herger, gets no respect from the lame-stream media.

The Jan. 24 New York Times, in a story about the "race for the exits" by member of Congress, noted that three California representatives had announced their departures in quick succession.

The Times named two of them, Elton Gallegly and Jerry Lewis, describing them as "old-school lawmakers" who "faced complications due to redistricting."

The third member of Congress, who has been there for a quarter of a century, went unmentioned.