cyber attack on power grid 2022 cyber attack on power grid 2022

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. "Everyone's ears perk up when 'cyber attack' meets 'electric utility,' but thankfully, the grid was not affected in this case," noted Bill Lawrence, CISO at SecurityGate.. "By the way, a large percentage of the smaller, distribution-level electric cooperatives are immune from . Sectors such as finance and defense have developed strong information sharing practices with government support. Short of outright conflict with a state adversary, several plausible scenarios in which the U.S. power grid would be subject to cyberattack need to be considered: There are many plausible circumstances in which states that possess the capability to conduct cyberattacks on the U.S. power gridprincipally Russia and China, and potentially Iran and North Koreacould contemplate such action for the reasons elaborated above. 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. Agencies would present a range of options to respond. Comment |. America is a powerful country, but its power grid is vulnerable. Why is the power grid so hard to protect? Sectors such as finance and the defense industrial base have developed strong information sharing practices with government support. Duke Energy workers repair an electrical substation that they said was hit by gunfire, near Pinehurst, North Carolina, on Tuesday. For example, grid distribution systemswhich carry electricity from transmission systems to consumershave grown more vulnerable, in part because their operational technology increasingly allows remote access and connections to business networks. The attacks come at a time of heightened tensions with Moscow, as about 100,000 Russian troops backed by tanks and . Christmas Day attacks on power substations. 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. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) said in a statement on Thursday that it was seeking tips about trespassing, vandalism and malicious damage of equipment at a substation in Clackamas county on 24 November that caused damage and required cleanup costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. 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. The FBI is looking into some of the attacks, but it hasn't said how manyit's investigating or where. According to Chris Hurst, vice president of Value Engineering at OnSolve , emerging 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. The POWER Interview: Physical Attacks on the Grid Soared in 2022. The White House would set the public posture for the response. Regardless of which part of the power grid is targeted, attackers would need to conduct extensive research, gain initial access to utility business networks (likely through spearphishing), work to move through the business networks to gain access to control systems, and then identify targeted systems and develop the capability to disable them. Actions taken now could significantly mitigate the effects of a large-scale blackout caused by a cyberattack. ", 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. Amidst rising geopolitical tensions, cyber attacks against critical . Article Source: U.S. Dept. The Good Friday Agreement has dampened sectarian tensions and brought stability to Northern Ireland, but the peace deals twenty-fifth anniversary has been marred by a Brexit-related trade impasse that has thrown the regions hard-won gains into doubt. 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. 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 . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The energy sector has a target on its back. The next administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could make response and recovery planning a priority. A strong statement on deterrence could do more than anything else to prevent an attack on the grid. They are growing in sophistication and in some cases rival, if not exceed, the capabilities of nation states. Also, state actors, criminal gangs, and other attackers are homing in on energy critical infrastructure. As the Lloyds analysis concluded, only 10 percent of targeted generators needed to be taken offline to cause widespread harm. Its unknown who is behind the attacks but experts have long warned of discussion among extremists of disrupting the nations power grid. It started on 23 December . The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a not-for-profit international regulatory authority whose mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid. Ukraine has been hit by a "massive" cyber-attack, . Increasing the number of interconnected resources supplying the electric grid will also expand the potential attack surface for cybercriminals. Similar attacks happened at two energy substations in North Carolina where residents lost power after gunshots. DHSs emergency response organization FEMA has been a leader in accomplishing this mission. Protective Measures. 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. They can damage artificial satellites and cause long-lasting power outages. The grid is under attack. 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. NERC reliability standards call for a risk-based approach in the implementation of physical security safeguards that include access Control, key cards, alarms, and roving security. In the other group, you have the intelligence and homeland security communities folks in the DHS, FBI, NSA, and their congressional oversight committees. 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. If this were to happen to our smart grid, we would lose the connection to countless devices disrupting services on a large scale. Print |. Attacks on power grids are no longer a theoretical concern. The General Accounting Office (GAO) has explicitly stated that the U.S, Energy Grid is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. American-made guns trafficked through Florida ports are destabilizing the Caribbean and Central America and fueling domestic crime. The grid is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could cause catastrophic, widespread, and lengthy blackouts. . Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI's Charlottefield office, confirmed the bureau was investigating the North Carolina attack. The U.S. government has warned private industry that it has "evolving intelligence" that Russia is considering cyberattacks against the United States. The likelihood that an attack carried out by a determined and capable adversary would be thwarted by security measures is low. Many experts are now also concerned that smart grid technologies, which use the internet to connect to power meters and appliances, could allow an attacker to take over thousandsif not millionsof unprotected devices, preventing power from being delivered to end users. The Texas energy sector has been increasingly probed for weaknesses by . 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. Yet critics of the program argue that it is too expensive for most utilities to participate in and that it is only focused on detecting threats at network boundaries rather than within ICS networks. 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. 9 min read. At the same time, the grid is becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks via: The US government standards agency NIST is also prioritizing cybersecurity of the Grid in their progam Cybersecurity for Smart Grid Systems. In the Ukraine case, attackers targeted substations that lower transmission voltages for distribution to consumers. In 2016, the Department of Energy (DOE) received only three reports of cyber incidents at utilities; none of the incidents affected customers. March 31, 2023 The U.S. secretary of energy has said Russia could do the same thing here. TheKershaw County Sheriff's Officereported the FBI was looking into the South Carolina incident. 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. A Russian military-linked hacking group has attempted to infiltrate Ukrainian power substations and deploy malicious code capable of cutting electricity, Ukrainian government officials and private . 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. Some of those include: shielding and hardening targetsgrid protection by protecting against surges and voltage; decentralization and employment of off-grid or distributed-grid networks; phased voltage stabilization systems and resistors for redirecting and balancing energy; mandating enhanced security standards, training and contingency planning, and establishing mechanisms for sharing information on vulnerabilities and threats. 20 March 2022. Reliable electricity is essential to the conveniences of modern life and vital to our nations economy and security. Asked if the U.S. is prepared for such an attack, McConnell told Kroft, "No. Power outages are over 2.5 times more likely than they were in 1984. Although attribution was not definitive, geopolitical circumstances and forensic evidence suggest Russian involvement. The DOE should model its efforts on the Department of Defenses Cyber Crime Center, which provides intelligence feeds and forensic support to companies within the defense industrial base. (modern). Solar flares are made up of high-energy particles resulting from explosions on the Suns surface. The goal of such a strategy should be to secure the power grid to make it defensible, to detect attempts to compromise the security of the grid, and to provide certainty to adversaries that the United States will be able to attribute the attack and respond accordingly. A string of attacks on power facilities in Oregon and Washington has caused alarm and highlighted the vulnerabilities of the US electric grid. The most recent attacks in North Carolina and Washington state heighten . The Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) is mostly focused on physical threats and weather events. For example, the strategy does not include a complete assessment of all the cybersecurity risks to the grid. These threat actors are increasingly capable of attacking the grid. It was formed to address the urgency of protecting energy critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks. 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. Characterizing an attack on the power grid as an armed attack would likely have the strongest deterrent effect. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. C.V. Starr & Co. The existential threat to the U.S. Energy Grid can come from a variety of angles. It's time for the United States to get serious about stopping the flow. Cyber Attacks on the Power Grid. Thus, securing these systems and detecting malicious activity should, in theory, be relatively simple. Global Thought Leader in Cybersecurity and Emerging Tech, data connection, concept about IoT, global business, fintech, blockchain. As for the latter concern, the U.S. response or non-response could harm U.S. interests. 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. Emulating these efforts in the electricity sector would be a valuable government contribution to help owners and operators in the industry protect themselves. "This is a military hacking team . A regulatory approach could theoretically set a minimum standard, thereby leveling costs across all companies and addressing cost-cutting in security measures. Those operations need to be exercised on a regional and coordinated basis. 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 100 power grid attacks took place in the United States from January to August, breaking this nation's record for power-grid attacks for in one year, according to a Politico report. 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. A highly disturbing and realistic possibility one, in fact, that has been a headache for years has moved up a notch amid the Russia-sparked war in Ukraine. Sat 10 Dec 2022 01.00 EST Last modified on Mon 12 Dec 2022 10.49 EST. Religion and Foreign Policy Webinars, C.V. Starr & Co. ABERDEEN, S.D. Annual Lecture on China: Frayed RelationsThe United States and China, Virtual Event 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. Russia has already been active in targeting energy-related systems. The energy industry is vulnerable. March 23, 2023 You can cause a ripple effect where one outage can cause an entire seaboard to go down., The Associated Press contributed to this report, FBI joins investigation into attack on North Carolina power grid, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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 . April 6, 2023, Backgrounder The policy should also address how the administration would view the discovery that an adversary had taken initial steps toward a takedown of the grid, particularly the discovery that foreign actors had infiltrated utility networks. Within weeks, the U.S. government would have confidence in its attribution. A SANS Institute report concluded that the effects of the attack on Ukraines power grid were largely mitigated because grid operations there could be returned to manual control. 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. 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. For certain pieces of technology, it may make sense to replace software systems with hardware systems, hardwiring functions into circuit boards so that they cannot be modified remotely. A curation of original analyses, data visualizations, and commentaries, examining the debates and efforts to improve health worldwide. (Dakota News Now) - Attacks on the U.S. power grid increased in 2022, and local electric utility companies are preparing their security systems for any threats.