As our electrical system lifts itself out of the stone age, the defense built around it will require added vigilance.
My favorite joke when I was 5 years old was, “Where will you be when the lights go out?” The answer, of course, is “in the dark,” though I used to make my very patient sister guess a bunch of other places first, which I used to think was absolutely hilarious.
We are fortunate that in this country having the lights unexpectedly go out is actually a pretty big deal, and quite rare. You don’t have to wonder whether the light will come on when you throw the switch, or if your computer will have enough power to boot up. The sodas in the fridge are always cold and our showers are always warm. It always just happens, so we more or less take it for granted.
That comfortable reliance on modern, powered conveniences is one of the things terrorists really hate about us. So, it was no surprise CNN reported this week that ISIL is trying to attack the utilities grid. The interesting thing is, the spin that federal officials were putting on the story is that the attacks have been largely unsuccessful, and that the terrorists have little capability to enact a major attack against a utility. But that is kind of a misconception based on the two different types of networks found at most utilities.
Read the Remainder at Defense One
Concentrating on the IT side of things is one way of looking at it BUT a cascade failure is a real possibility if enough central nodes are taken out.
Node? Crossover points where multiple sub grids meet. For example:-
On August 14, 2003 a chain of events beginning with the loss of a few power stations due to high energy load escalated, with help from a combination of human error and tall trees, into the worst blackout in US history.
Ultimately it was only a couple of 345KV wires that failed.
Now multiple that by say 10. Ten pylons down. It doesn’t even have to be synced.
A case of KISS. Keeping it stupidly simple and a large supply of explosives.
Now that is something to get worried about.