Way back in the good old pre-internet days it was easy to guard the electric grid with a tall fence around the plants. But the internet provides a much easier way to get in and do damage. Who would want to do that? For starters, there are nation states, criminals, and terrorists.
The smart people think the nation states wouldn't do anything right away, but that wouldn't stop the smart people on the other side from planting a bug that they could activate when the time is right.
The Government Accountability Office just released a report titled Critical Infrastructure Protection: Actions Needed to Address Significant Cybersecurity Risks Facing the Electric Grid. A link to the full report in PDF can be found at that site.
The GAO has recommended that DOE and FERC up their cyber security games. Hopefully, they'll find and plug any gaps in their present security plans.
Meanwhile, thehill.com writes about this at Watchdog: Energy Department not doing enough to protect grid against cyber attacks capsuling some key concerns:
GAO wrote in the report, originally finalized in August, that “the nation’s electric grid is becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks — particularly those involving industrial control systems that support grid operations. Recent federal assessments indicate that cyberattacks could cause widespread power outages in the United States, but the scale of such outages is uncertain.”
GAO emphasized that DOE “plays a key role in helping address cybersecurity risks in each component of the electric grid’s infrastructure. However, DOE has not developed plans for electric grid cybersecurity that address the key characteristics needed for a national strategy.”
The report also found that while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates the flow of electricity between states, has approved mandatory grid cybersecurity standards, these do not fully encompass current federal guidance on grid cybersecurity.
It shouldn't be too much to ask those responsible for protecting the people they are supposed to protect to actually try to protect them. I need my air conditioner.
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10:57 AM 10/2/2019
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