Feds admit they can't protect electrical grid from terror


A new federal report, “Surviving a Catastrophic Power Outage,” warns that the United States’ response plans and resources would be hugely “outmatched” by a catastrophic power outage, which could leave society in disarray and many people dead.
“We found that existing national plans, response resources, and coordination strategies would be outmatched by a catastrophic power outage,” said the report, which was released days ago.
“Significant public and private action is needed to prepare for and recover from a catastrophic outage that could leave the large parts of the nation without power for weeks or months, and cause service failures in other sections – including water and wastewater, communications, transportation, healthcare, and financial services – that are critical.”

The President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council was set up right after 9/11 to advise on practical strategies for industry and government to reduce the many risks from such an event.
But the study looked at not just EMP but at any major power-system failure. And it comes just as the threats of terrorist attacks on the electric grid are rising.
PJMedia reported the newest terror threat on the power grid.

“The image shows a faceless figure in a black hoodie with the Islamic State flag holding a bomb with a lit fuse with transmission towers and lines in the background. Along the power lines is the phrase ‘Just Terror’ – the ISIS slogan for lone jihadist operations – and blood-spattered ground,” the report said. “The poster directs jihadists to ‘make a surprise for the Crusaders.’“At the end of last month, another ISIS-allied media group encouraged jihadists to ‘kill the infidels in ways which no one else ever used’ including ‘electricity’...

The new NIAC report was based on interviews with dozens of senior leaders and experts, as well as an extensive review of studies and statutes.
The team recommends that the nation “design a national approach to prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic power outages that provides the federal guidance, resources, and incentives needed to take action across all levels of government and industry and down to communities and individuals.”







Hackers broke into the US electric grid with spearphishing techniques targeting contractors with system access.
The Wall Street Journal has a detailed report out regarding a sophisticated, and successful attack by hackers into the US electric grid. The hackers could have temporarily shut off power.

Federal officials say the attackers looked for ways to bridge the divide between the utilities’ corporate networks, which are connected to the internet, and their critical-control networks, which are walled off from the web for security purposes.
The bridges sometimes come in the form of “jump boxes,” computers that give technicians a way to move between the two systems. If not well defended, these junctions could allow operatives to tunnel under the moat and pop up inside the castle walls.
In briefings to utilities last summer, Jonathan Homer, industrial-control systems cybersecurity chief for Homeland Security, said the Russians had penetrated the control-system area of utilities through poorly protected jump boxes. The attackers had “legitimate access, the same as a technician,” he said in one briefing, and were positioned to take actions that could have temporarily knocked out power.

The hack started in 2016 and is still ongoing. The Journal cited many other contractors who were hacked the same way as Vitello. Here's a recent hack.


Vello Koiv, president of VAK Construction Engineering Services in Beaverton, Ore., which does subcontracting for the Army Corps, PacifiCorp, Bonneville and Avista Corp. , a utility in Spokane, Wash., says someone at his company took the bait from one of the tainted emails, but his computer technicians caught the problem, so “it was never a full-blown event.” Avista says it doesn’t comment on cyberattacks.
Mr. Koiv says he continued to get tainted emails in 2018. “Whether they’re Russian or not, I don’t know. But someone is still trying to infiltrate our server.”
Last fall, All-Ways Excavating was again hacked.


Industry experts say Russian government hackers likely remain inside some systems, undetected and awaiting further orders.
“What Russia has done is prepare the battlefield without pulling the trigger,” says Robert P. Silvers, former assistant secretary for cyber policy at Homeland Security and now a law partner at Paul Hastings LLP.

Assumptions

Once again, we have assumptions that "Russia is Responsible".
The excuse: "The tools and tactics suggested the perpetrators were Russian."
It's a bit of a leap to go from that assumption to the WSJ headline.

Scary Bottom Line

Assumptions aside, someone was able to hack into companies responsible for the US electric grid, gaining technical abilities to shut it down.