Florida Power & Light (FPL) owns and operates the Fort Sumner turbines, but the power they generate is used by PNM, an Arizona utility company. The facility has been in use since October 2003.
PNM is not aware of any incidents affecting the company's Fort Sumner facility, said company spokeswoman Susan Sponar. She referred inquiries to FPL. FPL officials were not immediately able to comment on the matter.
The data posted by Bigr R show screenshots of the Wind Turbine's management interface -- Siemens-built software called WinCCC -- along wtih screenshots of an FTP server and a company project management system. There is also Web server header information and configuration data from a Cisco router, apparently hosted for the company by AT&T.
According to the router information, one of the company's passwords for the router was "cisco."
The security of industrial systems like this has come under scrutiny in the past year following the release of the Stuxnet computer worm, which is thought to have sabotaged systems used by Iran's nuclear program.
In this case, though, the hacker says he's a disgruntled insider. Insiders seeking revenge are responsible for about 10% to 15% of all industrial security computer incidents, said John Cusimano, director at the Security Incidents Organization. His company maintains a database of cyber-incidents documenting failures of computer systems used by SCADA systems.
"It's probably still up in the air as to whether this was a real threat or a hoax," Cusimano said.
Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com
