R. James Woolsey, the CIA Director under President Clinton, has said it would be hard to intentionally design an electricity delivery system more vulnerable and fragile than the one on which the U.S. presently relies. Few in government or grid-related work disagree with Woolsey — not even the Republicans and Democrats on the House Subcommittee on Continue reading →
cyberattacks
A bill aiming to protect the nation’s electricity grid from cyber attacks easily passed a House subcommittee today and now heads to the full Energy and Commerce Committee. The Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense (GRID) Act, co-authored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) to take measures to protect the Continue reading →
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has partnered with a broad range of industry-leading utility companies on projects that will upgrade the nation’s electric grid – making it more efficient, reliable, interoperable and secure against cyber attacks. “Given our nation’s challenges, we feel it’s critical to provide services across a wide range of utilities and tailor those Continue reading →
In a new report released by McAfee, several noted security experts discussed the improving cyberwarfare capabilities of some countries and the risks facing critical infrastructures The ability of several countries to launch politically-motivated cyber-attacks has increased and put critical infrastructure in the crosshairs, according to a sweeping report from McAfee. via Smart Grids Increasingly Vulnerable Continue reading →
Last year, we told you about how vulnerable a smart grid could be to cyber-attacks. Last night on CBS, 60 Minutes ran a report by correspondent Steve Kroft called “Sabotaging the System,” which looked at the country’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks. via CBS’ 60 Minutes looks at vulnerability of U.S. smart grid: Consumer Reports Home & Continue reading →
The Smart Grid allows two-way communication between you and the power grid. You can feed power back to the Grid, the Grid can tell you how much power you’re using throughout the day, and — if you want — it can control your appliances for you. And that’s just way too tempting for hackers, thieves Continue reading →
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is making its smart grid ambitions clear, announcing that it will partner with construction firm Black & Veatch to help utilities put together stimulus-worthy smart grid projects – and to protect them from cyber-attack. That’s something Lockheed said it has already been doing behind the scenes, though it did not name Continue reading →
LogLogic, a log, compliance, and security management solutions vendor, recently surveyed information security professionals from America’s energy and utilities companies, both large and small, and found that all of those surveyed agree compliance with NERC standards alone is not enough when it comes to infrastructure protection. Recent studies, LogLogic says in its report on the Continue reading →
Regulators tasked with maintaining the U.S. power grid are aware of the dangers posed by cyberattacks on the nation’s electrical system. They’re just not necessarily in agreement over how to secure it. Meanwhile, engineers look forward to a time when the power grid will give us not only electricity, but also data. The so-called smart Continue reading →
As promised, President Obama said Friday he’d name a “cybersecurity czar,” just as the White House published its review of how to start fixing all the cyber-vulnerabilities in the nation. What about electricity and cybersecurity? After all, much of the recent furor over U.S. vulnerability to cyberattacks came after reports that foreign hackers broke into Continue reading →
