The power grid is experiencing heightened threats from foreign adversaries and domestic extremist groups that can pose devastating consequences for the nation’s supply of electricity.
Energy infrastructure experts testified that the U.S. power grid is facing a myriad of escalating cybersecurity risks and emerging threats from both foreign adversaries and domestic extremists amid an ongoing critical modernization journey.
The latest annual threat assessment out of the Intelligence Community identifies Chinese cyber operations against the U.S. homeland as a major national security threat and warns that Beijing is “almost certainly capable of launching cyber attacks that could disrupt critical infrastructure services” nationwide, including the power grid.
Meanwhile, domestic extremists have been charged in recent months with plotting to attack energy facilities and power grids across the country, as part of an apparent effort to promote white supremacist ideologies.
Route Fifty
Chris Riotta
Staff Reporter, Nextgov/FCW
JULY 20, 2023