Cellphone with logo of Spain’s intelligence agency Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) in front of website. Focus on centre-left with phone display. Unmodified photo.
Spain’s Intelligence Service investigating blackout.
Credit: T. Schneider, Shutterstock
Spain has been plunged into darkness – and now intelligence chiefs are warning it may not be an accident.
Spain’s Mi5, the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), Spain’s top-secret spy agency, launched an urgent probe after “serious indications“ surfaced that Monday’s mega blackout could be the result of a sophisticated cyber attack on the national electricity grid.
And it’s not just Spain in a spin – Portuguese authorities are backing up fears that the lights-out drama could have been triggered by shadowy forces beyond the border.
Zero energy, zero answers… so far
Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the company that keeps the country’s lights on, has been battling for hours against suspicious IT anomalies eerily consistent with an external attack. The result? What experts chillingly called a “zero energético” – a total collapse of the electrical system.
Security insiders are now warning that the type of cyber-ambush being considered would need such a high level of sophistication, it could waltz past the standard protections guarding critical infrastructure.
A ghost from the past
In 2015, hackers using targeted malware shut down parts of Ukraine’s energy network, leaving huge regions powerless. And let’s not forget Stuxnet – the notorious computer worm that ravaged Iran’s nuclear facilities, infiltrating systems, stealing secrets, and then ordering them to self-destruct.
Experts are warning: this isn’t a one-off fight – the cyber threat is a moving target, demanding smarter and smarter countermeasures every year.
No room for error
The Spanish Interior Minister slammed the emergency button, raising the security alert across Spain’s sensitive facilities – from power stations and water plants to airports and telecom networks.
An international cyber-defence collaboration is already under way, with Spanish authorities linking up with European cyber security agencies to share intelligence and sniff out whether a wider coordinated attack is unfolding.
“Hybrid threats — combining cyber attacks with physical sabotage — is one of the main risks to national security right now,“ a source close to the National Security Council told Spanish publication El Mundo.
What’s next? Emergency talks and reinforced defences
As Spaniards reach for their candles and phone torches, the government isn’t wasting time. Ministers have vowed to beef up protection around critical control systems and promised to keep the public informed with official statements. Meanwhile, Spanish tech giant Indra has launched a state-of-the-art cybersecurity platform aimed at safeguarding Europe’s critical infrastructure from crippling cyber attacks.
The new system is built to keep essential services running even under extreme digital threats, offering a major boost to Europe’s cyber defences.
Can Spain – and Europe – ever truly stay one step ahead of invisible enemies? And if it turns out that hackers can indeed turn off the lights… what else could they take down?
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