Agencies would present a range of options to respond. Based on data from DOE, physical attacks on the grid rose 77% in 2022. Unfortunately, the US has had much practice in this area and preparation and resilience and the key to recovery. 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. April 6, 2023, Backgrounder 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. April 15, 2022. It's not yet clear whether any of the attacks were coordinated. Russia's cyber attack on Ukraine's grid in 2015 knocked about 60 substations offline, leaving 230,000 people in the dark. The attackers disrupted the supply of oil supplies on the US East coast and demonstrated the lack of a cybersecurity framework for both preparation and incident response. Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the North Carolina attack. The intelligence community would look at its existing intelligence collection for indications of what might have been missed and would begin targeted collection efforts to trace the attack. For National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (October), todays WatchBlog post looks at two of our recent reports on cybersecurity risks to the U.S. electric grid and federal efforts to address them. In the other group, you have the intelligence and homeland security communities folks in the DHS, FBI, NSA, and their congressional oversight committees. cutting power to more than 14,000 customers. Thousands of electric substations dot our nation's landscape. (powermag.com), Will Vulnerable U.S. Electric Grid Get a New Protection Mandate? These events, CMEs for [+] short, are powerful releases of solar charged particles (plasma) and magnetic field, travelling on the solar wind. Disabling or otherwise interfering with the power grid in a significant way could thus seriously harm the United States. Latin America Studies Program, Religion and Foreign Policy Webinar: Religion and Technology, Virtual Event The physical risks to the power grid have been . Data reveals tha t 77% of assets within the energy sector retain porous Information Technology (IT) or Operational Technology (OT) boundaries, making them uniquely vulnerable to cyber threats. Any of the systems principal elementspower generation, transmission, or distributioncould be targeted for a cyberattack. The grid is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could cause catastrophic, widespread, and lengthy blackouts. They see cybersecurity as an emerging risk that is being methodically addressed. 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 . (powermag.com). 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. China has been accused of conducting a long-term cyber attack on India's power grid, and has been implicated in cyber attacks against targets in Ukraine. The FBI would take lead responsibility for investigating the attack domestically and for conducting computer forensics. In the Lloyds scenario, only 10 percent of targeted generators needed to be taken down to cause a widespread blackout. With respect to the former, a cyberattack could cause power losses in large portions of the United States that could last days in most places and up to several weeks in others. Similar attacks happened at two energy substations in North Carolina where residents lost power after gunshots. Christmas Day attacks on power substations. Numbers for 2015 show a similar pattern. Beyond simply naming the adversary behind attacks, the U.S. government could make clear how it would view an attack on the power grid and the kinds of responses it would consider. How the U.S. government reacts, more than the actual harm done, will determine whether the cyberattack has a continuing impact on geopolitics. 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. The Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) is mostly focused on physical threats and weather events. April 12, 2022, 6:29 AM PDT. A power plant employee adjusts the wiring of a power unit in North Texas. Carrying out a cyberattack that successfully disrupts grid operations would be extremely difficult but not impossible. 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. Through cooperation, the U.S. government has been able to determine the parties behind most major attacks. Moreover, current federal requirements do not extend to power distribution, which is regulated unevenly at the state level. An attack on the power grid could be part of a coordinated military action, intended as a signaling mechanism during a crisis, or as a punitive measure in response to U.S. actions in some other arena. Cyber Attacks, Ukraine, Russia's . January 31, 2022, How Tobacco Laws Could Help Close the Racial Gap on Cancer, Interactive According to Ukrainian officials, around 70 government websites, including the . The goal of the organization is to bring utility CEOs, CISOs, CIOs, and operational executives together in a trusted forum to confidently build an industry-wide cybersecurity game plan. Alternatively, a tax deduction for utility spending on cybersecurity may be a less directbut more politically palatableway to increase funding. A string of attacks on power facilities in Oregon and Washington has caused alarm and highlighted the vulnerabilities of the US electric grid. Such an attack would require months of planning, significant resources, and a team with a broad range of expertise. If an attack on the grid cannot be prevented, steps can be taken now to mitigate the effects of the attack and plan the response. Given the fragility of many industrial control systems, even reconnaissance activity risks accidentally causing harm. You are also agreeing to our. 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. More than a dozen cases of vandalism have been reported since September. They know the grid is complex and they fear unintended consequences from abrupt changes. Adversaries may underestimate both the ability of the U.S. government to determine who carried out an attack and the seriousness with which such an attack would be addressed. The U.S. power grid has long been considered a logical target for a major cyberattack. DHSs emergency response organization FEMA has been a leader in accomplishing this mission. 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. Pre-Attack Measures. Making public attribution of attacks a routine practice could be a deterrent. 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 . WASHINGTON The Justice Department unsealed charges on Thursday accusing four Russian officials of carrying out a series of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure in the . However, considerable potential exists to miscalculate both the impact of a cyberattack on the U.S. grid and how the U.S. government might respond. by Mitchell Ferman March 31, 2022 5 AM Central. They can damage artificial satellites and cause long-lasting power outages. According to reporting by Politico, there have been 101 physical and cyber attacks on equipment that delivers electricity nationwide just through August of 2022, which is . Even before Christmas Day attacks on power substations in five states in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast, similar incidents of attacks, vandalism and suspicious activitywere on the rise. A stronger E-ISAC and a strong DOE counterpart to support it are necessary. So, how is the electricity grid vulnerable and what could happen if it were attacked? State actors, therefore, are the more likely perpetrators, and given these long lead times, U.S. adversaries have likely already begun this process in anticipation of conflict. Thus, the United States should take measures to prevent a cyberattack on its power grid and mitigate the potential harm should preventive efforts fail. These response options would clarify how the U.S. government would respond not only to a successful attack but also to a failed attempt and to the discovery of adversarial probing and exploration to prepare for an attack. Power companies use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks to control their industrial systems and many of these SCADA networks need to be updated and hardened to meet growing cybersecurity threats. A strong statement on deterrence could do more than anything else to prevent an attack on the grid. . After the North Carolina attacks, acoordinating council between the electric power industry and the federal government ordered a security evaluation. All rights reserved. As the lead federal agency for the energy sector, DOE has developed plans to implement a national cybersecurity strategy for protecting the grid. 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. by Olivia Angelino, Thomas J. Bollyky, Elle Ruggiero and Isabella Turilli Annual Lecture on China: Frayed RelationsThe United States and China, Virtual Event 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. Global Climate Agreements: Successes and Failures, Backgrounder Humans in orbit are also very vulnerable to these events, whose high-energy particles are not shield by typical spacecraft. New threats suggest additional protections may be needed, such as additional perimeter setbacks (where possible), removing sight lines, additional roving security and monitoring, and hardening protective barriers. Cybersecurity by design necessitates building agile systems with operational cyber-fusion to be able to monitor, recognize and respond to emerging threats. 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. One challenge is that there's no single entity whose responsibilities span the entire system, Morgan said. The existential threat to the U.S. Energy Grid can come from a variety of angles. [These attacks] are a real threat.. The DOE has run a pilot program, known as the Cybersecurity Risk Information Sharing Program (CRISP), for several years to help companies detect advanced threats targeting their networks. Connectivity driven by the adoption of industrial internet of things and operational technology has further expanded the attack surface and energy infrastructure operators should implement security by design to counter cyber threats. 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. The attack prompted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) to order grid operators to increase security. Chuck Brooks is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. 2022; With increasing installations of grid-connected power electronic converters in the . Law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service have built strong forensic investigation capabilities and strong relationships with both foreign law enforcement and the intelligence community. And global terrorist and nation state adversaries could pose a threat to stations and substations. Baltimore power grid attack plot: Sarah Beth Clendaniel and Brandon Russell arrested, officials say - CBS News. 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. Domestic terrorists see the U.S. electric grid as a "particularly attractive target," according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning, raising fears of a physical attack on critical . Where are the potential weaknesses in our nations electricity grid? 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. 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 . As for the latter concern, the U.S. response or non-response could harm U.S. interests. Sectors such as finance and defense have developed strong information sharing practices with government support. J., & Asrari, A. These three interconnections operate independently to provide electricity to their regions. Vandalism is also an issue. The DOE highlighted six main avenues for . Cyber criminals are targeting the energy infrastructure in the U.S, including pipelines, refineries and power grids to attack their operations and . To protect the grid from cyberattack, the Trump administration should initially focus on creating an information-sharing system that can bring together early signals that an attack against the grid is under way and share information that can be used to stop it. It is here. The Ukrainian government has revealed it narrowly averted a serious cyber-attack on the country's power grid. A deep learning-based cyber-attack detection and location identification system for critical infrastructures is proposed by constructing new representations and model the system behavior using multilayer autoencoders and has outperformed conventional . Finally, the Trump administration should ensure that utilities can invest sufficiently in cybersecurity and do not need to make tradeoffs between traditional risk management activities and addressing national security threats. Increased funding could be achieved through a user fee similar to the universal service fee on phone lines, though a new tax on consumers may not be politically feasible. DOE labs have also funded research projects on the specific cybersecurity needs of utilities. 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. The gaps for cyber -attackers have been recognized by government and industry. Thus, some form of rate relief is needed to encourage significant investments in cybersecurity. When a CME hits Earth, it can cause a geomagnetic storm which disrupts the planet s magnetosphere, our radio transmissions and electrical power lines. The problem is that substations make easy soft targets and there are more than 55,000 connected to the grid in the US. Its unknown who is behind the attacks but experts have long warned of discussion among extremists of disrupting the nations power grid. The U.S. electricity grid is really three interconnected transmission grids covering the contiguous United States, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. gunfire was reported near a hydropower plant, have warned in one report after another since at least 1990, Power restoredfollowing damage at power substations, North Carolina substations attack is latestinfrastructure threat, Outages in North Carolina county could last days, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. 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. Cyber Attacks on the Power Grid. Any attack on electric infrastructure potentially puts the safety of the public and our workers at risk, said BPA, which delivers hydropower across the Pacific north-west . Russia has already been active in targeting energy-related systems. 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. The physical risks to the power grid have been known for decades, Granger Morgan, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told CBS. Power plants and substations are dispersed in every corner of the country, connected by transmission lines that transport electricity through farmland, forests and swamps. Experts and intelligence analysts have long warned of both the vulnerability of the US power grid and talk among extremists about attacking the crucial infrastructure. Scott L. Hall and Callie Carmichael, USA TODAY. WASHINGTON Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that they had thwarted a Russian cyberattack on Ukraine's power grid that could have knocked out power to two million people . More could also be done to improve government support for securing electric utilities. In 2017, Russia deployed the notorious NotPetya malware via Ukrainian accounting software and . It was formed to address the urgency of protecting energy critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks. Metal boxes and high-voltage wires often in full view behind a chainlink fence. 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 . Preventing an attack will require improving the security of the power grid as well as creating a deterrence posture that would dissuade adversaries from attacking it. For example, and similar to the above, the standards do not include a full assessment of cybersecurity risks to the grid. It is doubtful that a terrorist organization would have both the intent and means to carry out such an attack successfully. "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 . by Will Freeman However,we found that DOEs plans do not fully incorporate the key characteristics of an effective national strategy. The energy industry is vulnerable. In February 2022, three men pled guilty to conspiring to attack substations with explosives and ghost guns in furtherance of white supremacy ideology. Hackers and hacktivists, as well as malicious insiders, also pose significant risks to the U.S. power grid as well." Remote access has made our system more vulnerable to attacks. Such sophisticated actions would require extensive planning by an organization able to recruit and coordinate a team that has a broad set of capabilities and is willing to devote many months, if not years, to the effort. A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report released in January warned that domestic extremists have been developing credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020. . Automated Cyberattack Prevention and Mitigation, DOE Announces $45 Million for Next-Generation Cyber Tools to Protect the Power Grid | Department of Energy. The U.S. power grid is a key potential target for a Russian cyberattack as tensions increase over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. by Lindsay Maizland Industry experts, federal officials and others have warned in one report after another since at least 1990that thepower grid was at risk, said Granger Morgan, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who chaired three National Academies of Sciences reports. By Grant Asplund, Cyber Security Evangelist, Check Point Software. 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 . Specialized support from the Department of Homeland Securitys Industrial Control System Computer Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) and the DOE national labs would also be provided. Thus, improving the protection of the grid requires investing in new, more secure technology that can be protected and to implement basic cybersecurity hygiene. The central microprocessor has an integrated security lock in glowing yellow color. The U.S. secretary of energy has said Russia could do the same thing here. Over the past 150 years, the earth has been struck by more than 100 solar storms In 2008, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that the damage and disruption of the grid caused by a solar flare could cost up to $2 trillion in economic damages, with a full recovery time of four to 10 years. Given the large number of utilities and the vast infrastructure to protect, even with improved cybersecurity, an adversary would still be likely to find numerous unprotected systems that can be disrupted. Based on data from DOE, physical attacks on the grid rose 77% in 2022. NERC standards should require companies to maintain capabilities for manual operations. 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. 20 March 2022. According to French think-tank Institut Franais des relations internationals (IFRI), the power sector has become a prime target for cyber-criminals in the last decade, with cyberattacks surging by 380% between 2014 and 2015. The next administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could make response and recovery planning a priority. For example, the strategy does not include a complete assessment of all the cybersecurity risks to the grid. 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. People waiting for taxi in central Kyiv on November 24. Global Thought Leader in Cybersecurity and Emerging Tech, data connection, concept about IoT, global business, fintech, blockchain. Solar flares are made up of high-energy particles resulting from explosions on the Suns surface. Weve made a bit of progress, but the system is still quite vulnerable, he said. The cost to protect all these stations from physical threats is significant and requires strong law enforcement coordination. The all-hazards approach favored in emergency management may prove insufficient for a blackout of long duration covering large swaths of the nation. In 2013, still unknown assailants cut fiber-optic phone lines and used a sniper to fire shots at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation near San Jose in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack that caused millions of dollars in damage. As the adage says, we are in this all together because the stakes are so high. Payments for ransomwaremalicious software that encrypts data and will not provide a code to unlock it unless a ransom has been paidby some estimates have topped $300 million. By Kevin Collier. Posted on October 12, 2022. In January, the Department of Homeland Security said domestic extremists had been developing "credible, specific plans"since at least 2020 and would continue to "encourage physical attacks against electrical infrastructure.". The US Department of Energy (DoE) reported 150 successful . In 2022 there were several attacks by White supremacists on northwest power grid electrical substations in Oregon and Washington. Traditional military action, as opposed to a response in kind, would be likely. short, are powerful releases of solar charged particles (plasma) and magnetic field, travelling on the solar wind. The sprawling U.S. water system is central to the nations economy, but chronic underinvestment, increasing demand, and the consequences of climate change have revealed the systems weaknesses. 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. While darker scenarios envision scarcity of water and food, deterioration of sanitation, and a breakdown in security, leading to a societal collapse, it would be possible to mitigate the worst effects of the outage and have power restored to most areas within days. Finding viable solutions will require co-investment, strong public/private sector partnering and collaboration in research, development, and prototyping. Reliable electricity is essential to the conveniences of modern life and vital to our nation's economy and security. He said that in one group, you have utility executives, their regulators, and the elected officials who oversee the energy industry. 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.

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