GRAND LEDGE – Over the past several months, alarm bells have been going off regarding potential attacks against the U.S. electrical grid. Consider these recent media headlines:
The Wall Street Journal: Cyberattacks Raise Alarm for U.S. Power Grid — Excerpt: “Cyberattacks that have knocked out electric utilities in Ukraine, including one suspected hack earlier this month, have renewed concern that computer criminals could take down portions of the U.S. power grid.”
U.S. News & World Report: Cybersecurity of the Power Grid: A Growing Challenge — Excerpt: “Until 2015, the threat was hypothetical. But now we know cyberattacks can penetrate electricity grid control networks, shutting down power to large numbers of people. It happened in Ukraine in 2015 and again in 2016, and it could happen here in the U.S., too.”
In the department’s landmark Quadrennial Energy Review, it warned that a widespread power outage caused by a cyberattack could undermine ‘critical defense infrastructure’ as well as much of the economy and place at risk the health and safety of millions of citizens. The report comes amid increased concern over cybersecurity risks as U.S. intelligence agencies say Russian hacking was aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election.”
The new report offered a long list of key findings for policymakers, and here are a few:
To read the report’s findings, click on http://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/how-secure-is-our-smart-grid.html