Paper Example on Grid Attack in America

Introduction

In the United States of America, several cases of hackers' attempt or successful infiltration have been reported; some of the particular instances of attack have been witnessed in Nebraska Municipal power pool (Bretas 210). Additionally, the cause of the matter has been attributed by a failure of the management and apparently, it is surprising that a network that serves about 200 communities but it is insecure, approximately employ a few IT officials and thus exposing the system to the hackers.

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Security report shows that the installation of old equipment has made it difficult to secure the power stations. Therefore, many terrorists have been targeting the largest grid system. Nonetheless, it has become difficult to trace the attackers unlike the cases of suicide bombing and another physical attack it is hard to detect the attack attempts (Sullivan34).

Renewable Energy Backup Exposes the Grid to Attack

The attempt to make an alternative source of energy in an electric industry by wind and solar power and has become dominant today. The move has an advantage of generating more power supply, but it has caused a risk to some extent. As traditional sources of energy, the wind power source is susceptible to the cyber attackers this is because the system of wind energy is connected which opens a window for the potential hackers (National security 400). In most cases, the solar users sell their surplus electric power to the power grid making and hence making the sources more vulnerable to the attack (Costa et al. 595). On a different note, the solar and wind source of energy are reliable backups of the power supply, yet they expose the grid to high risk of attack, the hackers have to intensify their target to the network.

Another concern of the situation is that there are some security flaws, Fredrick one of the prominent IT official cites that in one occasion, he was able to hack the Californian home electric system an indicator of security flaw. From this experience, he was able to put off all the safety control system and other home networks merely because they were all connected to the computer cloud system. "I could have installed spying software that would have visibility on their home networks, seeing their emails and everything they did online," Bret Mount Said.

California owns target to get about fifty percent of the power system by 2030 which may be infiltrated despite the security measure that might be put in place, possibly due to the power grid system (Bretas 213). Moreover, the services of the consumer will improve when the rooftop solar are applied as opposed to the utility organ that tries to develop the security system then focus on the consumer's satisfaction. The concern of security of the information system was drawn to the attention of the Clinton. In the year 2000 Clinton announced the National plan to assure Information system he publicly announced that there is increased use of a computer in the electric system and thus exposing it to the risk of crashing the electrical system. The president demand was given an immediate timeline, but then there was no implementation this was so because the private sectors owned most of the system as such limiting access. The primary challenge is that the president could be in a position to issue security order, but he was not able to infringe directly on the information system.

At around 2001 more warning about the threat to the security system had been issued vulnerability was more dominant especially in the Northern Virginia and the New York City. Even then more hacking of the grid system surpassed which left about 50 million people without power for almost two days. The power sources were disrupted, and those areas with the supply were characterized by surges and blackouts, following the scenario the security system blamed human failure and weak equipment's.

Effects of the Major Attack

It is appallingly wrong to ignore the matter of power grid security; this is regarding the devastating experience that would occur to the Americans without the power supply (Costa et al. 600). Ponder a situation that the power breakdown for two weeks. This will derail the power supply to the health centers, and industries were consequently leading to the increased mortality rates and considerable losses in the sectors. Supply of necessities such as water and break down of the communication and transport network is hampered leading to total havoc.

The report from the investigators indicates that hundreds of transformers are shut down in different moments resulting in the shutdown of the country electric power grid (Prehoda 169). The group of unidentified terrorist is suspected of detonating the nuclear weapon and hacking of the grid. While this situation has surpassed the government officials and scientist have regarded power supply uncertain because of the current attempt to disable the country's electrical grid, thus summing up to the massive disruption of telecommunications and therefore affecting the food supply drinking water and sanitation.

As a result, a congress has been commissioned to find reports and headings with the aim of developing a lasting solution to the rising cases of power catastrophic disturbances. The most significant challenge is that the undertaking has not taken any action. (Bretas 212) indicates that promising limelight comes from some state legislators who have filed their own grid related solutions; to some extent, some of the proposed measures have been adopted.

The grid remains the most vulnerable part of the power supply and therefore causing predictions and warnings from the expert scientist that there are high chances of doomsday in the remote areas. The question is whether the utility companies are fully prepared for the disasters concerning the electrical grid life. The utility sector is the only one with the core mandate of enforcing physical and security standard and guarantee to the reliability of the grid.

Legislators say that it is the responsibility of regulatory authority over authority to ensure proper grid and transmission and power distribution system. Concerning the situation, the state should ensure that the companies have installed active blocking devices or high input of software to protect large transformers along with generators from electromagnetic power attacks made comprising of geomagnetic and of the solar systems. Additionally, the state should put in place new system protection to modernize the equipment's of the electric power grid (Liu 211).

Review of careful selection of commission to do a comprehensive study of the prevailing condition of the power systems is necessary. The commission should make the thorough probe to the points of weakness and demand the electric providers to include the protective infrastructure (Prehoda 170).

Emergency Preparation

It is essential to remain prepared for any power disruptions to prevent the devastating loses that might occur due to the solar flare events. Preparing by installing protective device is not sufficient enough; the emergency concern is equally helpful (Sun 45).

Establishment of Interagency Working Groups

The power control and regulation authority should embrace the interagency management system to ensure preparedness for responding to terrorism and war. The legislature should come up with the bill for emergency and ensure proper budget allocation by the federal government. The modern equipment for emergency response should be put in place to prevent the disaster (Liu 201). The likelihood of the attack can be thwarted by improving the security measures. Efforts s should be put in place to ensure data sharing which could enable quick detection and instant blocking of the other related power suppliers. Moreover, this would definitely keep off the attempt of power interruption and thus prevent the damage.

In the fight against grid attack several factors need to be put in place, first is educating the society on the importance of electric supply. The operations of administration should remain sensitive to the issue by ensuring that the Americans are best informed about the prevailing situations (Prehoda 167). Emphasis on sole responsibility for the best is equally fundamental. Distracting operations, in response to the case, the state should apply diplomatic, military initiative to harness security measures and maximum shield from the attack. Retaliation operations the state should ensure good relations with the neighboring countries to ensure that there are good relations to prevent the cyber-attack of the power grid as a form of retaliation.

Conclusion

To sum up, grid attack is a significant threat to the power supply; it is therefore associated with massive power failure and devastating experiences such as termination of medical services, and infrastructure some especially health effect resulting to death, It is, therefore, the ultimate responsibility of the state to ensure maximum security. The legislature should also provide the formation of a research team for regular research and continuous improvement of the power system to protect the grid.

Work Cited

Bretas, Arturo S., et al. "Smart grids cyber-physical security as a malicious data attack: An innovation approach." Electric Power Systems Research 149 (2017): 210-219.

Costa, Alberto, et al. "An optimization model for power grid fortification to maximize attack immunity." International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems 99 (2018): 594-602.

Liu, Yining, et al. "A Practical Privacy-Preserving Data Aggregation (3PDA) Scheme for Smart Grid." IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (2018).

Prehoda, E. W., Schelly, C., & Pearce, J. M. (2017). US strategic solar photovoltaic-powered microgrid deployment for enhanced national security. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 78, 167-175.

Sun, Chih-Che, Adam Hahn, and Chen-Ching Liu. "Cyber security of a power grid: State-of-the-art." International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems 99 (2018): 45-56.

Sullivan, Julia E., and Dmitriy Kamensky. "How cyber-attacks in Ukraine show the vulnerability of the US power grid." The Electricity Journal 30.3 (2017): 30-35.