A series of attacks on US power stations throughout the years have invoked fear of vulnerabilities within the security of electricity infrastructure.
“We face an elevated threat from domestic violent extremists – that is, individuals in the United States who seek to commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of domestic social or political goals,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said.
According to the latest statistics available from the Department of Energy, there has been a rapid upward trend of attacks on power facilities in recent years. There are many reasons electric power is targeted. Larger-scale attacks looked to catch the attention of the media and generate fear, while smaller attacks looked to commit robberies.
Damaging the power stations would mean turning off the electricity to the entire local area. By doing so, communication, transportation, markets, and other services are all disrupted.
Due to the lack of central authority to regulate the power system, it wasn't easy to improve the electrical system. This led to the creation of a new domestic terrorism unit in 2022.
As for 2023, the continuous attacks will likely create new security policies for energy infrastructures as the cost of improvements still remains a major obstacle.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/04/us/us-power-grid-attacks/index.html
https://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/OE417_annual_summary.aspx
https://time.com/6244977/us-power-grid-attacks-extremism/
3 comments:
I don't really understand this post. Are you talking about physical or cybersecurity attacks? Also, how can electricity infrastructure be the target of robberies? Surely there are better places to rob. And media attention? Again, I question who would attack a power plant or something like that for attention. I could be wrong, but I am definitely confused.
The recent attacks on US power stations are alarming, not only because they are happening, but also how easy it apparently is to do substantial damage to one of these power facilities by starting a fire or using other methods. These sites are targeted for the same reason terrorists have targeted airliners – they are high profile attacks which get large amounts of media attention and impact a significant number of people. There are, of course, a very large number of power infrastructure sites around the country. Providing security for all of them to the extent needed to deter attacks would be difficult. The solution likely is twofold. First, better intelligence is necessary on domestic terrorist organizations which are likely to carry out these types of attacks. Secondly, identifying the most critical sites and improving security for these sites is crucial to prevent the largest outages from occurring. For example, if 20% of the sites accounted for 80% of the electrical capacity and risk, improving security at these particular sites would be a good start. Unfortunately, these types of attacks are likely to continue as long as there are groups looking to disrupt lives and further their cause, and it does not seem like that is going to stop anytime soon.
I think overall attacks of US power grids is dangerous and can be very damaging to communities if they cause a loss of power to cities for a long time period. But I wonder, when compared to other crime and security issues that society faces more commonly, how dangerous and how commonly does it actually occur? If in 2023 the government is thinking about investing in this issue I wonder how serious is the issue for the government to consider spending a large amount of money on it. I guess I'm curious since this is the first time I've heard of this being an issue in the US but if it is, does it usually happen in large or smaller populated areas? If these attacks have happened more often these last few years, then yes I agree this is an issue that needs to be addressed since security, specially now with technology and everything being stored in it, is incredibly important and must be protected.
Post a Comment