For those that remember the fourth Die Hard movie, “Live Free or Die Hard”, which starred Bruce Willis as a cop who stops a bunch of cyber-terrorists from shutting down all of the utilities in the US, your fictional storyline might be turning into a reality.

There has been a lot of recent discussion about the need for a smarter electrical grid system. A smarter electrical grid system definitely has its advantages. Utilities will be able to react faster to brownouts, and customers will be able to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. The government views the build-out of a smart grid as a positive step towards improving energy independence, global warming and emergency issues. And IT companies are creating new and profitable revenue streams to keep up with this new demand.  But, recently, the hazards of integrating our country’s grid system are starting to become more clear.

A great article by Tom Kellermann, Vice President of Security Awareness for Core Security Technologies, raises issues that the U.S. will need to prepare for as the grid system becomes more integrated but less secure. According to Kellermann, the “U.S. electrical grid has long maintained an acceptable level of engineered resilience in the physical sense, but the continued introduction of IT-based control systems, in particular Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) technologies that feature IP-based network connections, or which can be configured to connect with such networks, have introduced an entirely new and hazardous opportunity for remote cyber-attacks to be carried out against our power infrastructure.” A recent Department of Energy study agreed with Kellermann’s statement. The report found security holes in the networks that are controlling the electric grid. If someone were to infiltrate our energy grid through these holes, then they would be able to control the delivery of power and steal precious data.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, the onus is on the government and the IT industry to be more proactive about securing our new “smart grid”. Proponents of the smart grid do have a point when they argue that upgrading our infrastructure from 60′s and 70′s technology will bring us the advantages mentioned above.  But if the reality is that our new age system could be shut down with the click of a mouse, then I think that many would rather stick with our old reliable electrical grid system.

To learn mores, click this presentation by Core Security Technologies which further details the vulnerabilities of the electric grid.

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