Dive Brief:
- A simulated attack on the nation's power grid conducted Wednesday and Thursday exposed numerous points of vulnerability during an exercise that hypothetically plunged millions of Americans into darkness.
- “It’s going really well,” said Gerry Cauley, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) , which ran the drill. “A bit scary, but really well.”
- The simulated cyberattack took down hundreds of transmission lines and transformers. There were also seven "deaths" of first responders.
Dive Insight:
The exercise, GridEx II, followed on NERC's initial 2011 simulation and brought together more than 10,000 electrical engineers, cybersecurity professionals, utility executives and FBI agents across the country. “Exercises like this help strengthen relationships, improve crisis response plans and increase the flow of critical information to the electricity sector,” said Brian Harrell, associate director of critical infrastructure programs at NERC. “Paired with NERC Reliability Standards and other training and education efforts, the industry continues to develop dynamic security programs to meet the ever-changing threat environment.”