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Lawmakers Protect Security Plans For Power Plants

Florida’s government-owned power plants get a new layer of protection today after lawmakers agreed to shield utility security systems from public view.

Republican Senator Rob Bradley of Fleming Island says he usually refuses requests for public records exemptions, but this is different.

“If you put 10 people in a room, they would agree unanimously these are not the types of things that need to be publicly available on the internet because of public security.”

The move comes after the Orlando Utilities Commission reported a dramatic spike in the number of cyber-attacks on security system firewalls.

Last year, Iranian hackers broke into a University of California network and stole passwords that gave them access to the U.S. power grid. 

A Miami native, former WFSU reporter Jim Ash is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience, most of it in print. He has been a member of the Florida Capital Press Corps since 1992.