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June 26, 2009

White House Announces Cyber Security Plan

By Kennedy Maize

Smart Grid and Cyber Security Questions

The report raises serious questions about the administration’s plan for a “smart” electric transmission and distribution grid, which, according to most analyses, relies on the Internet for its intelligence. Some have raised the issue of whether a smart grid means a grid more vulnerable to cyber attacks. That’s particularly relevant if the U.S. high-voltage transmission grid, which is only marginally interconnected, becomes more seamless and interconnected, and connected to local distribution grids, as a result of national energy policy, note energy analysts.

Obama made no reference to the electric transmission grid. A recent report in The Wall Street Journal that China and possibly Russia had penetrated the U.S. electrical grid has not been confirmed by any other media sources, nor has the Journal or any other publication explained just what penetration of the grid—which is not a monolithic structure—actually means. The article didn’t specify what hackers targeted—specific substations or control centers—or what they were able to achieve.

Said one government expert on grid security, speaking to MANAGING POWER on condition of anonymity, “I’m not at all convinced the incident occurred. I’m not convinced it’s possible that a hacker of any status could get into a control center and bring down any major part of the grid. Our grid failures in the past have been a result of cascading circumstances that no hacker could either anticipate or initiate or replicate.”

In saying he will name a cyber security czar, Obama said the unnamed individual will be “responsible for orchestrating and integrating all cyber securities policies for the government, working closely with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure agency budgets reflect those priorities, and, in the event of major cyber incident or attack, coordinating our response.”