Our Electrical Grid Is Deeply Vulnerable to Hackers and Storms
There are easy ways to protect it — if the government acts
On March 5, 2019, hackers targeted the U.S. electrical grid. For around 10 hours, operators in California, Utah, and Wyoming experienced “blind spots” — temporary losses of visibility to parts of the control system. Communication went down at some remote power generation sites. The hackers had attacked Utah-based renewable energy developer sPower, and although the attack did not disrupt daily life and there was little effect on the transmission grid, it was significant for one reason: It had never happened before.
Officials with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) were initially reluctant to disclose information about the incident, but later stated that “the reboots were initiated by an external entity exploiting a known firewall vulnerability.”
Experts warn that the United States needs to brace its electrical grid. In addition to cyberattacks from hackers, geomagnetic storms also threaten the grid. It’s become increasingly clear to scientists that the grid needs protection, but too few people seem to realize it’s an issue at all.
Enter Helena, a little-known and vaguely defined organization attempting to raise these concerns on a national…
