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back to article Homeland Security report hoses down energy-sector 'cybergeddon' talk

Everybody knows how easily the world could be plunged into a New Dark Ages with nothing more than a handful of hacker keystrokes – everybody except the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In a report obtained and published by Public Intelligence researchers, the DHS contradicts most of the received wisdom …

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  1. a_yank_lurker

    Reality Check

    The North American energy grid is vulnerable to both natural causes and man-made issues. The DHS threat assessment may be accurate in the sense a cyber attack is not the most likely cause of a power outage faced in the US. But it may badly underestimate the effects of a cyber attack compared to a lightning strike. The first is probably very difficult to assess and plan for but the second is well known and can be planned for.

    2 0 Reply
    1. thames
      Reply Icon

      Re: Reality Check

      There are bigger problems than just lightning strikes. The blackout of 2003 is a good example. Lack of line maintenance by a utility in Ohio plus bugs in their GE control software (which bogged down and so couldn't display alarms when under stress) knocked out electric power to more than 50 million people through a series of cascading failures. It took about a week to restart all the generating plants knocked off line and so restore full service.

      "Lessons have been learned", but very little has changed in practice since then. A similar set of circumstances, or even a large geomagnetic storm would probably precipitate the same event again.

      4 0 Reply
      1. Brenda McViking
        Reply Icon

        Re: Reality Check

        Nah, the biggest threat is squirrels. Just look at the evidence!

        2 0 Reply

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    What, no 'Executive Summary'?

    1 0 Reply
  3. Stevie

    Bah!

    But DHS is after all a Bush-era construct, desinged in a time of "tell them nothing" and "We have nothing to fear but everything". The most explicit statement permissable is "credible threat" under the Bush doctrine, which can be summed up as "the Vietnam war was lost in the newspapers. Therefore we win by not telling people what is going on".

    0 0 Reply
  4. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Reminds me of something

    A flightless bird perhaps?

    Rather large..

    .. and there's something about head and sand.

    0 0 Reply
  5. TXITMAN
    Coat

    Blank Check

    What the security vendors want you to write.

    0 0 Reply
  6. Kev99 Silver badge

    One of the biggest threats is the idiot bean counters who collaborate with know nothing coders and put everything on the internet. The utilities, especially the power companies, used to use their power lines for their data. Or they'd build or lease out dedicated lines.

    Just remember a net if just a bunch of holes held together with string, and a cloud is a bunch of holes held together with water vapor.

    1 0 Reply

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