Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow
The electric grid is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11.
This is why thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, F.B.I. anti-terrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid.
One goal of the drill, called GridEx II, is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain for everyday necessities. One example is a substation break-in that officials initially think is an attempt to steal copper. But instead, the intruder uses a USB drive to upload a virus into a computer network.
The drill is part of a give-and-take in the past few years between the government and utilities that has exposed the difficulties of securing the electric system.
http://www.spp.org/publications/13 - CIPC Brief (Harrell Conway Mar 2013) V2.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/u...rill-will-simulate-a-knockout-blow.html?_r=3&
Just another drill...