The Daily Shield is very pleased to republish the following article written by Neal O’Farrell from ID Guardian. ID Guardian is the trusted source of information concerning identity exposure, identity fraud, and online security.
The next time your TV goes on the blink, or you suffer a surprising power outage that no-one seems to be able to explain, you could be forgiven for worrying it might be a cyber attack and possibly even by terrorists.
A recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) identified cyber attacks against America’s power grid as one of the top three threats that security experts are worrying about.
Cyber threats against the nation’s power system are nothing new, and experts believe that power systems across the country are constantly being probed, perhaps thousands of times a month, by cyber terrorists looking for weaknesses. The goal of the attackers would be to create national panic and disrupt the U.S. economy that relies so much on electrical power.
The unfortunate news is that experts acknowledge how unprepared the power industry is for these attacks, how inadequate security is, and how easy it would be for attackers to disrupt the system. I guess it’s just a matter of time.
Lessons learned?
• The next time your lights flicker, don’t assume it’s a cyber attack on the power grid. But use it to remind yourself that hackers and cyber terrorists never sleep.
• It never hurts to have a backup plan, just in case. Anything battery operated, from a radio to a flashlight, is always good to have nearby. And of course constantly back up your data so a power interruption doesn’t slow you down.
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