Consensus is growing that the U.S. electricity grid is vulnerable to both hacking and physical attacks, but protecting it remains a work in progress—especially given the spending that would be necessary by financially stretched utilities.
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M. Granger Morgan, the head of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, told CNBC that a physical attack on the grid poses a “much greater threat” than a cyberattack. Still, he added that vulnerabilities within the technological network of the power system itself require “real and urgent attenuation.”
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“If they could gain access, hackers could manipulate [control and data] systems to disrupt the flow of electricity…block the flow of vital information, or disable protective systems,” says the NAS report, adding that a successful attack could “entail costs of hundreds of billions of dollars,” and could render entire swaths of the country helpless to extreme weather.
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Engineers have warned for years that the nation’s power grid is vulnerable to potential foul play. Even as many doubt a cyberattack alone would prove crippling, a combination of both a physical and a technological attack could wreak havoc and prove economically destabilizing.
An attack involving firearms on a San Jose, Calif.-based power station in April, initially dismissed as vandalism, has more recently seen investigators referring to a “higher level of planning and sophistication,” according to a report in Foreign Policy magazine. The incident was recently referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Full article: Double threat: US grid vulnerable on two fronts (CNBC)
Global Geopolitics 