Cyberattack on power grid real threat
Imagine life without electricity for months at a time due to an enemy cyber attack on the nation’s power grids. That threat is real according to former ABC newsman, Ted Koppel, who has researched the topic and written a book called ‘Lights Out.’
“If someone succeeds in taking down one of our power grids, and the Russians can do it, the Chinese can do it, and may the Iranians and North Koreans, it would be devastating,” Koppel said in a recent PBS interview.
The good news is that researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory are hard at work to prevent cyber attacks on the grid.
“We believe we play a significant role,” Associate Lab Director, Brent Stacey said. “We have some of the world’s leading industrial control systems and cyber security experts here at Idaho National Laboratory.”
It’s known widely for its nuclear mission, but the INL has also been working on power grid cyber security for years. Stacy says you can’t conduct mock cyber attacks on a city’s power plant, but you can at the INL.
“With 111 miles of transmission and distribution grid that we own her at Idaho National Laboratory, we have the ability to run those tests and provide the facts for the community to take action,” Stacy said.
The INL was the first place where a cyber attack was shown to cause physical damage to equipment on the grid. They hooked up a big generator.
“We put it on our grid,” Stacy explained. “We took a cyber hacker 11 miles away and they hacked into the system, and actually caused the grid to commit suicide. If you go on Youtube and look for the Aurora Test you’ll actually see that event.”
Stacy says they are passionate about their cyber security mission to save the nation from the impact of an attack on the power grid.
“A loss of power in a region in catastrophic,” Stacey said. “It’s important because all the other life sectors depend on electricity– fresh water, food supply and other things. It would take a very sophisticated attack to cause that kind of damage and the probabilities are low, but they’re not impossible.”
Is the nation prepared in case of a long term power outage? Ted Koppel says for the most part no, but he says one group is.
“The Mormons,” Koppel said. “The one thing that the Mormons do that I would recommend to Americans in general, is to have a six month supply of food and water.”
The Taysom family outside Pocatello has taken the counsel of their Mormon church leaders to have an emergency food supply to heart.
“So that we are self-contained in an emergency,” Cami Tayson said.
Taysoms don’t consider themselves extreme preppers, but they would be prepared in case of a long term power outage.
“This is where we will eat from if we can’t get to the grocery store or if the power goes out,” Cami Taysom said as she entered their food storage room.
The Taysoms have everything they would need to provide for their family – from canned fruits and meats, to small and large containers of water, from pasta, spaghetti sauce, and spices, to toilet paper and various grains.
“We hope it would feed our family or any friends in need for a year or more,” Lance Taysom said.
“We have at least a year,” Cami added.
Ted Koppel maintains more families should do the type of the think Taysoms are doing.
“And if those who can afford it, do it, and if the government has a backlog of freeze-dried food, which lasts up to 25 years, we can probably survive something like this, Koppel said. “If we don’t do that, there will be thousands of fatalities.”
