The US blackout of 2003 caused a fair amount of economic losses (mostly spoiled food due to dead refrigeration) and ~12 deaths (about 0.00003% of the affected people). It was a minor annoyance and life goes on. I'm hoping that's the most these hackers would be able to do.<p>The question is, at what point does the hacker threat turn from a minor annoyance like this, where for most people life is back to normal in a few hours - days, to a serious threat to our civilization -- can they keep the network down long enough that food and fuel production / distribution is affected to the point that 1%, 10%, 50% of the affected population dies? Can they permanently destroy so many generators / wires / transformers so that available repair crews and equipment stockpiles are exhausted and entire towns are without power for months? Can they send massive over-voltages over power lines to destroy all plugged-in electronic devices in every home and business, and create widespread explosions and fires at the push of a button?<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003</a>