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There are two fundamental ways for terrorists to disrupt a power grid:
a physical attack or an internet based cyber attack. Although the U.S.
has not experienced such attacks, in other countries terrorist attacks
on the power grids are common; and very often executed quite easily
by even the most unsophisticated groups.
High-tech cyber attacks have recently emerged as a new and deadly
threat. The North American power grid has become so dependent on
computer control that our systems have become vulnerable to global
terrorist hackers.
And the last decade of rapidly increasing electronic connectivity for
the nations business sector has made both the financial and logistical
consequences of a major disruption infinitely more damaging than in
the past.
Grid goes to Full Alert under first-ever warning
Within hours after the terrorist attacks began, the North American
Electric Reliability Council (NERC) issued an alert instructing grid security
coordinators at locations across the U.S. and Canada to assume a high
level of readiness.
The first-ever warning prompted coordinators to send crews into
the field to secure and guard parts of the grid infrastructure seen
as critical to the nation’s power supply; should the targets spread to
include vulnerable parts of the North American system.
In the space of only a few hours, their role drastically shifted from
fretting about hooligans shooting out insulators on a Friday night, to
worrying about terrorists threatening the security of the nation’s
infrastructure.
“The grid clearly is vulnerable. You cannot build a Great Wall
of China around all the lines,” said Brantley Eldridge, of the NERC.
“If someone is willing to die for a cause, you can’t stop it.”
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