from the time-to-start-stockpiling-electricity dept.
Congress mobilizes on cyber threats to electric grid:
Lawmakers are zeroing in on the potential for foreign cyber attacks to take down the U.S. electric grid, with members in both chambers pushing hearings and a flurry of bills to address the issue.
Congressional interest in the issue is growing following reports that Iran has stepped up its cyber attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure, and as Trump administration officials cite threats from Russia and China against the electric grid.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee focused on threats to the grid during a hearing on Friday, as lawmakers look to get ahead of the issue.
[...] [Assistant secretary of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). Karen] Evans highlighted the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) earlier this year on the threat.
The assessment found that Russia not only has the ability to execute cyber attacks against the U.S. electric grid, but is also "mapping our critical infrastructure with the long-term goal of being able to cause substantial damage."
On China, the ODNI warned that the country "has the ability to launch cyber attacks that cause localized, temporary disruptive effects on critical infrastructure."
Recent analysis has also shown that Iran is stepping up cyber attacks against the U.S., drawing the attention of Trump officials. Christopher Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency, said in a statement that officials "will continue to work with our intelligence community and cybersecurity partners to monitor Iranian cyber activity, share information and take steps to keep America and our allies safe."
The array of threats has Congress taking notice, and lawmakers from both parties have introduced a number of bills to combat cyber threats to the energy sector.
[...] Richard Mroz, senior advisor on state and government relations at Protect Our Power, said out a serious roadblock to legislation to secure the grid are concerns over costs.
"One challenge industry and regulators have is what is this all going to cost, and it isn't quite clear what those costs are yet," Mroz told The Hill. "Consumers need to understand that to protect these systems, it's going to cost something."
But Mroz underlined the overall threats to the grid and the urgency facing lawmakers. He warned that despite industry's efforts, in a worst-case scenario a cyber attacker could hack into a control system and endanger civilians.
"That is the issue, that an adversary could remotely turn off the power plant, turn off the wastewater treatment system, turn off the pumps or the switches for our cell tower," Mroz said.
Related Stories
The Biden administration on Tuesday warned the nation's governors that drinking water and wastewater utilities in their states are facing "disabling cyberattacks" by hostile foreign nations that are targeting mission-critical plant operations.
"Disabling cyberattacks are striking water and wastewater systems throughout the United States," Jake Sullivan, assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, and Michael S. Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote in a letter. "These attacks have the potential to disrupt the critical lifeline of clean and safe drinking water, as well as impose significant costs on affected communities."
[...] The letter extended an invitation for secretaries of each state's governor to attend a meeting to discuss better securing the water sector's critical infrastructure. It also announced that the EPA is forming a Water Sector Cybersecurity Task Force to identify vulnerabilities in water systems. The virtual meeting will take place on Thursday.
"EPA and NSC take these threats very seriously and will continue to partner with state environmental, health, and homeland security leaders to address the pervasive and challenging risk of cyberattacks on water systems," Regan said in a separate statement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:25AM (1 child)
"looking for Congress to designate “some liability protection” in regards to cyberattacks "
“to protect these systems, it’s going to cost something.”
Translation:
"We were too cheap to fix this known problem, now YOU have to pay for it, and if you loose power, it's not our fault"
(Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:31AM
Of course.
Profits are private, but losses are socialised.
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:52AM (1 child)
Pull the network cable out of the socket.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:25AM
Then ensure there is no connection between the control systems [inductiveautomation.com] and the internet.
Then go and get anyone who thinks onneting them to the internet was a good idea in the first place and fire/tar-and-feather/shoot them.
And do the same to anyone who suggests it in the future
Also, don't buy any systems that require internet connection to function.
Air-gapping shouldn't be for TLAs and tinfoil hat wearers*
*sorry, if you do maintain secure systems and try to practice good op-sec, you are a tinfoil hat wearer to the rest of the populace.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @02:13AM (10 children)
When I had the old electric service replaced/upgraded, shortly after I bought my house ~10 years ago, I asked about wiring for a generator to run part of the house (boiler, lights, etc). Rather than get an expensive transfer switch, the nice electrical contractor offered a special cover for the new panel which included a mechanical lockout for switching from mains to a genset. Haven't bought the generator yet, but maybe I should start looking so I've got something in place when the power goes off.
Another choice is to get a big enough inverter to run a few things off my car. I've done this in the past to run computer & modem*, but that older inverter (600W continuous) wasn't quite large enough to start the pump on the hot water heater system at my previous house (the pump would start to turn, then the inverter went into self-protect mode).
The car+inverter solution has the big benefit that there is always fresh gas in the car. A gasoline genset is likely to sit a long time and not be so happy to run on old gas, the gensets are usually noisy & stinky too. The car I used was an early 1990's Corolla, 1600cc, running just above idle (stick on the gas pedal) barely budged the fuel gauge after 8-10 hours of fast idle.
*This was in the days of phone modems and copper land lines. When the power went down at my house, the phone service still worked. As long as their backup power was working at my ISP (across town, a local phone call), the internet was available (at modem speeds...not very fast by modern standards).
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 16 2019, @02:22AM (4 children)
I can't imagine living in a country where the electricity supply is so unreliable that I would need to go to any of that expense and bother.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:22AM (1 child)
Why not?
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:37AM
My guess: a sudden attack of lack of imagination.
Among the probable causes: a long enough state of hypo-alcoholemia will trigger one in mostly anybody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:33AM (1 child)
Outback Australia should be at a throw of huata from where you live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 16 2019, @07:59PM
Outback Australia is just a short drive from New Zealand. For certain definitions of short.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:27AM (3 children)
Will keep you running for some days, a few weeks at most.
Beyond that, you'll be relying on the capacity of your dino-juice to stay supplied when the grid goes down nationwise - and I have this hunch other will get priority above your in their claim.
If you are in the position to do it (roof space and financially), get some PV panels with batteries instead - you should be still able to get some working with deep cycle lead-acid batteries, still the bang for the buck nowadays. At least you would be able to have power even if you'll need to ration it from one day to the other (based on the weather).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:48AM (1 child)
And/or wind [yourhome.gov.au]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 16 2019, @04:34AM
Mmmhhh... I'll let aside the noise, a 24m tall tower doesn't... mmm... sound enticing. I don't know, the one-in-a-100-years winds tend to be more like one-in-a-10-years lately.
From the linked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday July 16 2019, @03:48PM
During the ice storm in Montreal, the gas stations shut down because they had no electricity to pump the gas from the underground storage tanks.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Tuesday July 16 2019, @04:34AM
My dad waxes pedantic over "gas" vs. "gasoline". Reason I mention that: I strongly recommend a genset which runs on gas- natural (methane) or propane. A guy I occasionally work for has a small office building with a 15 KW propane-powered generator. It has had to run for days at a time. I don't know the total hours on it- I can check sometime. It's 15+ years old- maybe closer to 20. But the engine oil looks brand new, and we've never changed it. And propane burns less explosively so the exhaust sound is much less raspy than gasoline- kind of a smooth warm purr. A large gas bottle can store 2+ weeks worth of run time, and 15 KW is far more than you need.
You can buy manual transfer switches for your setup, either one big one (as you might have) or a sub-panel with individual circuit switches.
You'll have to analyze your heater pump power requirements. Pumps almost always draw significant / great power when starting up. The car-powered inverter might not work as well as you hope. You'll need to check your car's alternator output. You could drain the battery quickly if the car's engine is only idling. You'd have to rev the engine to get enough out of the alternator to keep the battery in charge and power anything significant. You could buy some extra deep-cycle batteries to buffer short runs of something that requires more than alternator's output. Smallish car alternators may only output 800W or so with engine @ 1500 RPM or so. Quite inefficient, but okay in emergencies. You might be able to upgrade the alternator, but 2 KW is nearly the max for larger engines. I'm sure someone will point out a bigger one, but I'm trying to be practical, IE., you can buy a 4 KW genset for less $ than a very high capacity car alternator. And you still need the huge inverter. And massive wiring. And never let the streams cross!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @04:49PM
According to the NSA and cybersquirrel1.com, the biggest threat to the electrical grid is still squirrels.
"I don't think paralysis [of the electrical grid] is more likely by cyberattack than by natural disaster. And frankly the number-one threat experienced to date by the US electrical grid is squirrels." - John C. Inglis, Former Deputy Director, National Security Agency 2015.07.09