EoW January 2014

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January 2014 40
Energy
Just a test: federal o cials and utility
executives hold a drill in knocking out
power lines and computers across America
“In this unprecedented continental-scale war game to determine
how prepared the nation is for a cyber attack, tens of millions of
Americans were in simulated darkness. Hundreds of transmission
lines and transformers were declared damaged or destroyed, and
the engineers were rushing to assess computers that were, for the
purposes of the drill, tearing their system apart.” The mid-autumn
event described by energy reporter Matthew L Wald in the New
York Times set nearly 10,000 electrical engineers, cyber security
specialists, utility executives, and FBI agents to grappling over
48 hours with an unseen “enemy.” Trying to turn out the lights
across America, the enemy injected computer viruses into grid
control systems, bombed transformers and substations, and
knocked out power lines by the dozen. (“Attack Ravages Power
Grid. [Just a Test]),” 14th November)
The drill, organised and conducted by North American Electric
Reliability Corp (NERC), a Washington-based non-pro t entity,
featured varying degrees of simulation. Without taking over any
actual operating equipment or interrupting consumer services,
the organisers mounted “denial of service attacks” in which
hackers ooded a computer connected to the Internet with
so many messages that it buckled under the load. In reality, of
course, banks and other companies have su ered such attacks.
From a location in suburban Washington, NERC deployed a
crew of about 40 people to lead the exercise, announcing new
attacks and other developments. At a second undisclosed spot,
also in suburban Washington, at the Department of Homeland
Security’s National Cyber Security and Communications
Integration Centre, specialists took calls from electric industry
technicians and operators to assist in dealing with the cyber
attacks.
Participants at 210 utility companies across North America
responded to developments as reported to them by drill
managers. Most of the companies are in the US, but some were
Canadian and Mexican utilities integrated into the American
grid. Royal Canadian Mounted Police o cials also took part.
Mr Wald noted that analysis of a much smaller drill two years
ago (GridEx, for Grid Exercise) found that participants were
good at communicating in an emergency with their neighbours,
“electrically speaking,” but not with national organisations like
NERC, making it hard to get an overview of what was happening.
How well they did this time, in GridEx II, will take some time to
evaluate.
† But Gerry W Cauley, the president and chief executive of
NERC, did provide a few details. The exercise resulted in
seven “deaths” of police o cers, re ghters, and utility
workers who showed up to investigate reports of problems
at substations or power lines and were shot by attackers
still on the scene. In all, there were 150 “casualties,” Mr
Cauley told the Times. Attempts to restore equipment and
get the lights back on were stymied by police o cers who
locked down the locations because of “active shooters.”
Drill participants were more reticent, probably for reasons
having to do with the vulnerability of their sites, chosen by
NERC. While the stated purpose of the drill was to identify
areas that need improvement, the companies involved were
assured that their performance would not be held up to
public scrutiny.
† An o cial of Southwestern Electric Power Co, which
serves parts of Louisiana, Arkansas and eastern Texas,
did speak candidly with Mr Wald. A power plant and a
transformer came under staged attack with guns and
bombs, and 108,000 of the company’s 520,000 customers
lost power. “There were certainly surprises for us,” said
Venita McCellon-Allen, the president and chief operating
o cer of a company which has conducted its own
preparedness exercises. “I sat up straight in my chair.” Most
of the company personnel on GridEx II assignment were
at a control centre in Shreveport, Louisiana, but were in
contact with the corporate parent, American Electric Power,
in Columbus, Ohio. By the end of the exercise, 20,000
Southwestern Electric customers were still in the dark. The
parent company got hit harder. Power was knocked out for
an additional 162,000 of its customers, and one employee
was killed. “It was more severe than anything we’ve drilled,”
Ms McCellon-Allen told the Times.
Telecom
Radio spectrum pollution: “every day,
all the time, every place in the United States”
“While most radio noise appears manageable at this point...
I think the wireless industry should heed the potential for
worsening spectrum pollution issues. It would be a shame if
the proliferation of wireless devices and duelling technologies
battling over chunks of spectrum eventually turns the Internet
of Things into the Interference of Things.”
Discussing radio interference, Tammy Parker, the editor of
FierceWirelessTech , noted that – with skyrocketing numbers of
devices accessing radio spectrum for communications and other
Transatlantic Cable
Image: www.bigstockphoto.com Photographer Zsolt Ercsel