The GAO notes that the grid distribution systemswhich carry electricity from transmission systems to consumers have grown more vulnerable, in part because their operational technology increasingly allows remote access and connections to business networks. Given the recent news of Industroyer2 targeting Ukrainian electrical substations in April 2022 and the increased threat of cyber attacks on energy infrastructure, IronNet Threat Research took an interest . World Map credits to NASA: [+] https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167. It is roughly divided into the western states, Texas, and the eastern U.S. and Midwest. Based on precedents from both cyber- and non-cyberattacks over multiple administrations, government agencies would likely advocate for a show of firm resolve but recommend avoiding a rush to judgment or an immediate counterattack. To ensure that the United States will be able to maintain military operations even in the face of a large blackout, the Trump administration should plan to end the reliance of military installations on the grid. Those operations need to be exercised on a regional and coordinated basis. However,we found that DOEs plans do not fully incorporate the key characteristics of an effective national strategy. In a news release, Timothy Langan, assistant director of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division, saidthe defendants "wanted to attack regional power substations and expected the damage would lead to economic distress and civil unrest.". 3) Existential Threats Weather, Solar Storms, and EMP. NIST will address these challenges through research conducted in the NIST Smart Grid Testbed facility and leadership within the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) Cybersecurity Committee (SGCC) to evaluate of cybersecurity policies and measures in industry standards, and development of relevant guidance documents for the smart grid cybersecurity community. Cybersecurity for Smart Grid Systems | NIST, The fact is that cyber-attacks are evolving in sophistication enabled by artificial intelligence. Attackers do not necessarily have to get close to cause significant damage. How the U.S. Can Protect Its Power Grid. A USA TODAY analysis of reports that utilities provided to the Department of Energy through August show: Since September, attacks or potential attacks have been reported on at least 18 additional substations and one power plantin Florida, Oregon, Washington and the Carolinas. EMP emits pulses of energy that can be emitted from the blast of a nuclear weapon, portable devices like high power microwave weapons (HPMWs). At this level of damage, the American public would likely demand a forceful response, which could reshape U.S. geopolitical interests for decades. Yet, given the long lead times for carrying out a successful cyberattack campaign, labeling reconnaissance activities as hostile actions and limiting such activities by U.S. cyber operators could mean forgoing the ability to make significant use of cyber operations during a conflict. Chuck Brooks is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. The country has inflicted malware on America in the past and might not be particularly concerned . We were fortunate to avoid any power supply disruption, which would have jeopardized public safety, increased financial damages and presented challenges to the community on a holiday.. The gaps for cyber -attackers have been recognized by government and industry. On Jan. 11, U.S. officials publicly called on utilities to comb their networks for signs of Russian intrusions. Weve made a bit of progress, but the system is still quite vulnerable, he said. Print |. Federal energy reports through Augustthe most recent availableshow anincrease in physical attacksat electrical facilities across the nation this year, continuing a trend seen since 2017. After the 2013 attack in California, a Ferc analysis found that attackers could cause a blackout coast-to-coast if they took out only nine of the 55,000 substations in the US. As the next generation of green power system, smart grids have gradually enhanced the operation efficiency of power system. Following an attack, eliminating malware and regaining control of the power grid would likely be carried out by the owners and the operators of affected systems with support from private incident response teams. Portland General Electric, a public utility that provides electricity to nearly half of the states population, said it had begun repairs after suffering a deliberate physical attack on one of our substations that also occurred in the Clackamas area in late November 2022. There are more than 55,000 transmission substations, the grid's exit ramps where high-voltage power is stepped down . Suspicious-activity reports jumped three years ago, nearly doubling in 2020 to 32 events. It is unclear who is behind the attacks on power stations. Requiring the ability to shift to manual controls and exercising those controls on an annual basis might now be the most valuable step to take. ", In February 2023, authorities arrested and charged two white supremacist suspects in connection with an alleged plot to attack and take down the power grid in Baltimore, Maryland. The continued expansion of distributed generation in the form of wind and solar installations could also significantly reduce the magnitude of an attack on the grid; however, most rooftop systems feed directly into the grid, and homes and businesses do not draw from their own systems. Carrying out a cyberattack that successfully disrupts grid operations would be extremely difficult but not impossible. In one scenario, disruption of just nine transformers could cause widespread outages. Several case studies are considered to validate the effectiveness of the proposed attack model. Raising and enforcing standards could help prevent a catastrophic attack by encouraging utilities to proactively defend their networks. "It was compiled on 2022-03-23, according to the PE timestamp, suggesting that attackers had planned their attack for more than two weeks." CERT-UA said in a security advisory that the Industroyer2 attack hit a single, unnamed Ukrainian organization in two separate waves, but the attack apparently failed to trigger a power grid failure and that . While some U.S. utilities might block attempts by an adversary to gain initial access or might be able to detect an adversary in their systems, many might not have the necessary tools in place to detect and respond. Where are the potential weaknesses in our nations electricity grid? More than 700 individuals associated with the bulk power grid and other related critical infrastructure participated in a simulation this week designed to test resilience against a major physical . The U.S. power grid is suffering a decade-high surge in attacks as extremists, vandals and cyber criminals increasingly take aim at the nation's critical infrastructure . Based on data from DOE, physical attacks on the grid rose 77% in 2022. Calling the electric grid one of our greatest national vulnerabilities, Woolsey added, If you get up into months or years of the electric grid going down, you move us back not into the 1980s, pre-Web, but into the 1880s, pre-electric grid. Will Vulnerable U.S. Electric Grid Get a New Protection Mandate? That group has a very different view. The physical risks to the power grid have been . GAO found cybersecurity information sharing weak across the sector. 1) Cyber-Threats To The Grid And Critical Infrastructure Abound. TheKershaw County Sheriff's Officereported the FBI was looking into the South Carolina incident. The all-hazards approach favored in emergency management may prove insufficient for a blackout of long duration covering large swaths of the nation. In 2014, Admiral Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, testified before the U.S. Congress that China and a few other countries likely had the capability to shut down the U.S. power grid. Iran, as an emergent cyber actor, could acquire such capability. BRINK Conversations and Insights on Global Business (brinknews.com), Military warns EMP attack could wipe out America, 'democracy, world order' | Washington Examiner, The Public/Private Imperative to Protect the Grid Community | GovLoop. At least 108 human-related events were reported during the first eight months of 2022, compared with 99 in all of 2021 and 97 in 2020. February 1, 2023 Together with continually demonstrating law enforcement and intelligence capabilities to attribute the sources of cyberattacks, a strong statement on deterrence could do more than anything else to prevent an attack on the grid. Pre-Attack Measures. Given the recent news of Industroyer2 targeting Ukrainian electrical substations in April 2022 and the increased threat of cyber attacks on energy infrastructure, IronNet Threat Research took an interest in breaking down and analyzing past malware and threat actors that have targeted the . A power plant employee adjusts the wiring of a power unit in North Texas. An adversary with the capability to exploit vulnerabilities within the U.S. power grid might be motivated to carry out such an attack under a variety of circumstances. (2022). The grid is under attack. Miri says that the stated mission of the Alliance is to unite utility leaders with one goal: to protect the worlds electric grids from cyberattack., Miri characterized to me the state of the industry in response to cybersecurity. The FBI is looking into some of the attacks, but it hasn't said how manyit's investigating or where. American-made guns trafficked through Florida ports are destabilizing the Caribbean and Central America and fueling domestic crime. A 2018 military study by the Air Force titled, Electromagnetic Defense Task Force, warned that an EMP weapon attack such as those developed by adversaries could destroy our way of life and displace millions. Motives include geopolitics, sabotage and financial reasons. During the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, multiple cyberattacks against Ukraine were recorded, as well as some attacks on Russia.The first major cyberattack took place on 14 January 2022, and took down more than a dozen of Ukraine's government websites. The Trump administration should also set security requirements for infrastructure investments made for the grid as part of its proposed stimulus package. Alternatively, a tax deduction for utility spending on cybersecurity may be a less directbut more politically palatableway to increase funding. DHSs emergency response organization FEMA has been a leader in accomplishing this mission. After the North Carolina attacks, acoordinating council between the electric power industry and the federal government ordered a security evaluation. A strong statement on deterrence could do more than anything else to prevent an attack on the grid. Moving military installations in the continental United States off the grid so that they can supply their own power would eliminate one of the rationales for attacking the grid and limit the hindrance caused by such an attack on military operations. Total human-related incidents including vandalism, suspicious activity and cyber events are on track to be the highest since the reports started showing such activity in 2011. Protective Measures. These options would include a show of military force, such as moving U.S. ships into disputed waters or staging exercises in contested regions; response in kind, through cyberspace; traditional military options; public and private diplomacy; use of economic sanctions targeting the state and the private entities or individuals involved; use of international law enforcement to arrest any parties involved; and targeting of known intelligence assets. of Justice. So, how is the electricity grid vulnerable and what could happen if it were attacked? Religion and Foreign Policy Webinars, C.V. Starr & Co. by Will Freeman The Donald J. Trump administration should focus its efforts on preventing an attack on the grid both through a deterrence policy and by strengthening security. Maintaining and exercising manual operations of the grid, planning and exercising recovery operations, and continually expanding distributed power could significantly shorten the duration of any blackout and reduce economic and societal damage. April 19, 2023, Moving Past the Troubles: The Future of Northern Ireland Peace, Backgrounder Attacks could easily inflict much greater damage than intended, in good part because the many health and safety systems that depend on electricity could fail as well, resulting in widespread injuries and fatalities. The White House would set the public posture for the response. While modernization planning focuses on new energy related technologies for distribution, resilience, storage, and capability, it is also focused on cybersecurity. Military warns EMP attack could wipe out America, 'democracy, world order' | Washington Examiner, Testimony at the Hearings from the late Dr. Peter Prye, a member of the Congressional EMP Commission and executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, put the threats in frightening perspective: Natural EMP from a geomagnetic super storm, like the 1859 Carrington Event or 1921 Railroad Storm, and nuclear EMP attack from terrorists or rogue states, as practiced by North Korea during the nuclear crisis of 2013, are both existential threats that could kill 9 of 10 Americans through starvation, disease and societal collapse., Dr. Prye also noted that a natural EMP catastrophe or nuclear EMP event could black out the national electric grid for months or years and collapse all the other critical infrastructures communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water necessary to sustain modern society and the lives of 310 million Americans. with Ivan Kanapathy, Bonny Lin and Stephen S. Roach But the electricity grid is an attractive target for cyberattacks from U.S. adversariessuch as nations like China and Russia, as well as individual bad actors, such as insiders and criminals. Article Source: U.S. Dept. In an indictment issued last week, the U.S. Justice Department said Russian agents persistently targeted more than 3,300 . March 24, 2022. 9 min read. Emulating these efforts in the electricity sector would be a valuable government contribution to help owners and operators in the industry protect themselves. Amid reports of Chinese state-sponsored hackers targeting the power grid, the Ministry of . The U.S. power grid has long been considered a logical target for a major cyberattack. ESET . They were not designed with security in mind and cannot be updated. Taiwan's digital minister Audrey Tang said the volume of cyber attacks on Taiwan government units on Tuesday, before and during Pelosi's arrival, surpassed 15,000 gigabits, 23 times higher than . Besides the intrinsic importance of the power grid to a functioning U.S. society, all sixteen sectors of the U.S. economy deemed to make up the nations critical infrastructure rely on electricity. The U.S. power grid is suffering a decade-high surge in attacks as extremists, vandals and cyber criminals increasingly take aim at the nation's . These devices are often accessible from the public internet and use weak authentication mechanisms. Mar 22, 2022 4:47 PM EDT. In 2015, Russian government hackers breached the Ukrainian power grid, leading to widespread outages. In practice, many industrial control systems are built on general computing systems from a generation ago. Three men who law enforcement identified as members of the Boogaloo movement allegedly planned to attack a substation in Nevada in 2020 to distract police and attempt to incite a riot. Cybersecurity firm Insikt Group found network intrusions at seven Indian State Load Dispatch Centers (SLDCs) that conduct real-time operations for grid control and . In 2022, there were 163 direct physical attacks on the U.S. electric grid, according to data from the Department of Energy reported . In addition to the direct consequences of a cyberattack, how the United States responds also has implications for its management of the situation that may have prompted the attack in the first place, the state of relations with the apparent perpetrator, the perceived vulnerability of the United States, and the evolution of international norms on cyberwarfare. An adversary could also underestimate the ability of the United States to attribute the source of a cyberattack, with important implications for what happens thereafter. Therefore, improving the security of individual utilities alone is unlikely to significantly deter attackers. J., & Asrari, A. Why is the power grid so hard to protect? As the lead federal agency for the energy sector, DOE has developed plans to implement a national cybersecurity strategy for protecting the grid. New revelations that the nation's power grid comes under physical or cyber attack every four days, according to analysis of federal documents by USA Today. After identifying this vulnerability, we recommended the Department of Energy (DOE)in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, state, and industry partnersaddress risks to the distribution systems. We have 18 critical infrastructures food, water, medical care, telecommunications, investments, the works and all 17 of the others depend heavily on the electric grid, said former CIA Director, James Woolsey, before the Cybersecurity and EMP Legislative Working Group. In the event that an attack on the grid succeeds in causing blackout to some extent, the Trump administration should ensure that both the government and the industry are prepared to respond. Risk managers at utilities will argue that they must balance the possibility of a cyberattack against the near certainty that weather events will affect their customers. This funding could allow criminal groups to purchase more sophisticated capabilities to carry out the ultimate ransomware attack. This could allow threat actors to access those systems and potentially disrupt operations. Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the North Carolina attack. Example of an Attacker Compromising High-Wattage Networked Consumer Devices. An earlier GAO report notes that the U.S. electric grid faces significant cybersecurity risks because threat actors are becoming increasingly capable of carrying out attacks on the grid. Nations, criminal groups, and terrorists pose the most significant cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, according to the report. Meanwhile, the application of communication and intelligent technologies make the power grid more vulnerable to the emerging cyber-physical attacks, such as the false data injection attack (FDIA). Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, and Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of Katy, Texas, were sentenced in federal court for their involvement in a plot to attack U.S. power grids to advance white supremacist ideology. Conceived as the principal defenders of the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has evolved into an institution with vast political, economic, and military power. A model for such an approach could be borrowed from the nuclear sector, where the Nuclear Regulatory Council has established so-called Design Basis Threats and requires nuclear plant operators to prove that they have the controls in place to defeat such threats. cutting power to more than 14,000 customers. Posted on October 12, 2022. Characterizing an attack on the power grid as an armed attack would likely have the strongest deterrent effect. As of 2022, the average age of the power grid is 32 years old. In January 2023, a bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned that domestic violent extremists "have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target. Components are labelled with random serial numbers, with many connections glowing in yellow color too. In keeping with these norms, the U.S. government could outline response options that would be proportional but not necessarily in kind. They had a specific objective. In the article Bracing for a big power grid attack: 'One is too many', USA Today states "About once every four days, part of the nation's power grid a system whose failure could leave millions in the dark . Scott L. Hall and Callie Carmichael, USA TODAY. The attacks have prompted a flurry of calls to better protect the nation's power grid, but experts have warned for more than three decades that stepped-up protection was needed. Reliable electricity is essential to the conveniences of modern life and vital to our nation's economy and security. There is no indication that these vandalism attempts indicate a greater risk to our operations and we have extensive measures to monitor, protect and minimize the risk to our equipment and infrastructure, the company said in a statement. It is here. Federal agencies should also be provided with specific mission jurisdictions for implementing risk management policy frameworks in coordination with regulators, and utilities themselves. A record number of attacks on electrical grids plunged thousands of Americans into darkness last year, as authorities worry neo-Nazis are targeting critical . As first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio, there have been at least six attacks, some of which involved firearms and caused residents to lose power. 12/26/2022 11:41 AM EST. All rights reserved. Smart grid cybersecurity must address both inadvertent compromises of the electric infrastructure, due to user errors, equipment failures, and natural disasters, and deliberate attacks, such as from disgruntled employees, industrial espionage, and terrorists. In 2022 there were several attacks by White supremacists on northwest power grid electrical substations in Oregon and Washington. Protecting the US energy infrastructure, and being proactive against the three alarming threats to the US Energy Grid from cyber, physical, and existential events is a challenging endeavor but an imperative. Addressing this vulnerability is so important that we made it a priority recommendation for DOE to address. Thus, improving the protection of the grid requires investing in new, more secure technology that can be protected and to implement basic cybersecurity hygiene.
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