(The Washington Post) Foreign states are breaching the security perimeters of America’s public utilities. In Connecticut, utilities have reported days in which they detected and deterred more than a million probes to their operating systems, many from foreign actors. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Oct. 2 referred to Russia-linked hacking as an effort to “prep the battlefield” for an attack. Meanwhile, Karen Evans, the assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response at the Energy Department, testified Sept. 27 that our energy infrastructure has become a
primary target for hostile cyber-actors. She warned that, “energy cybersecurity and resilience has emerged as one of the Nation’s most important security challenges,” and added in response to a committee question that she is not confident our utilities are prepared to withstand such attacks, particularly from potent actors such as Russia and North Korea. Evans is right: The potential damage from an attack on our critical infrastructure would be harrowing. It’s time we come up with a strategy to defend our nation from potentially crippling cyber attacks that would put states at the forefront of the fight. READ MORE
