White Paper: North American Electric Realiability Corporation - Critical Infrastructure Protection

Utilities are in the crosshairs of many forces in the world today. Among these are environmental global warming concerns putting pressure on the ability to generate sufficient electricity to meet future demand. Another is the multiplicity of computer and communications systems that must be protected against threats from those who would do harm to electric, natural gas and water distribution systems.

A Wall Street Journal article1 in April 2009 focused attention on the security issue by quoting various federal officials who claimed many utilities already had been breached – especially by spies from hostile countries – with bits of code left behind that could be activated in time of war or for other reasons to bring down major portions of the U.S. electric grid.

Read more...