Word: grid
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...whiz coolness of modern-day electronic devices - flat-screen high-def TVs, 2-lb. laptop computers, the iPhone - the national power grid we plug them into is almost as old and unchanged as Edison's lightbulb. We rely on the grid to juice everything from vacuum cleaners to dialysis machines, but it is a dinosaur, a leaky, money-wasting, carbon-dioxide-spewing system that remains shockingly vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks...
...While Meyerrose, Mansoor and other experts agree that the utility industry's vulnerability will grow as its command-and-control systems rely ever more on computer networks, those concerns are not new. Some security experts have cautioned against the growing use of "smart grid" technology - which relies even more on computer networks to allow both utilities and individual consumers to monitor and reduce power usage. There are already 2 million smart meters in use in the U.S., and the Obama Administration's 2010 budget includes $4.5 billion in spending on such technology. The fear is that these meters may allow...
...This is not to suggest that the power grid can't be hacked into. In 2007, CNN reported that researchers working for the Department of Energy had mounted an experimental cyberattack against a power generator and were able to get it to self-destruct. Details of the experiment were kept from the public at the request of the Department of Homeland Security...
...timing of the recent reports about the power grid's vulnerability to cyberattacks may have more to do with politics than anything else. The news flurry coincided with the introduction of a new bill, by Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe, to impose cybersecurity standards on private industry - regulations that would likely affect the utilities and other vital infrastructure. And this week marks the end of a 60-day review by the National Security Council of the nation's cybersecurity polices and practices; the results will be submitted to President Obama any day now, and will likely be made public...
...dollars of federal money that comes with it. Last month, Rod Beckstrom quit as director of the National Cybersecurity Center, citing turf battles between the Department of Homeland Security (which oversees the center) and the National Security Agency. His take on the sudden alarm bells over the power grid's cybersecurity? It's a power grab: a competition between two government agencies to become the main player in cybersecurity...