The veteran journalist\u00a0Ted Koppel\u00a0caused a stir last fall when he published a book warning that the United States is likely to eventually suffer a devastating cyberattack on its electricity grid that could leave millions of Americans in the dark, short of water and food\u00a0and generally desperate for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bestselling tome,\u00a0Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving theAftermath,\u00a0has come under fire from the U.S. utility industry. Some executives say that Koppel has overlooked steps taken by the federal government and power providers to protect against intrusions from foreign adversaries and to respond if damage is done to the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Koppel remains as adamant as ever that the risk persists and that Washington is ill-prepared to deal with it, as was evident the other day when he addressed several hundred state regulators in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We live in an age when the Internet has become, in addition to its undeniable virtues, a weapon of mass destruction. We have to come to terms with that,” Koppel told a gathering of the\u00a0National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It is na\u00efve in the extreme, to the point of criminality, in fact, that we are not prepared for the likelihood of a cyberattack on our infrastructure. At some point or another, it is going to happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Koppel, best known as the anchor of the ABC program\u00a0Nightline\u00a0from 1980 until 2005, was invited to NARUC’s winter meeting by Travis Kavulla, the vice chairman of the\u00a0Montana Public Service Commission\u00a0and the president of the national association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s important for state government officials who are charged with regulating the electric distribution system and federal regulators who are responsible for the transmission system, as well as industry, to hear the person who is shaping by and large the public narrative about the cyber vulnerabilities of the electric grid,” Kavulla said in an interview after the NARUC meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Whether you agree with him or not is really beside the point. This is his message. He very clearly, passionately believes in it, and it’s a completely different message than many sectors within the industry and within government regulation would have you believe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Koppel acknowledged the pushback from industry over his claims, but said none of it had changed his views. In fact, he appeared more convinced than ever, citing comments by CIA Director John Brennan on the CBS news magazine\u00a060 Minutes\u00a0just days before that the potential for “a very, very serious and significant” cyber attack on U.S. critical infrastructure is “the thing that keeps me up at night.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Added Koppel: “We don’t have agreement right now over whether there is a real cyber threat to the power grid. I am fairly convinced that there is. The industry, it seems, is at least partially committed to convincing us that there isn’t. Well, that’s a surefire way of reaching gridlock.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among Koppel’s critics is Gerry Cauley, the president and CEO of the\u00a0North American Electric Reliability Council\u00a0(NERC), a private nonprofit that oversees safety and reliability in the U.S. electric utility industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We must remain concerned, but it’s extremely unlikely,” Cauley is quoted as saying in a recent story by the online news service Information Week,\u00a0regarding the likelihood of a grid attack of the magnitude that Koppel describes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cauley cited steps taken by NERC and the\u00a0Federal Energy Regulatory Commissionto implement standards for physical and cyber security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Koppel’s remarks drew little response from the NARUC audience, and Kavulla said the issue is a difficult one for state commissioners, many of whom lack the technical expertise and the access to sensitive information necessary to understand the threat in any detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I don’t know whether to be as concerned as he is or not,” the Montana official acknowledged. “You only need a few points of vulnerability to infiltrate a system. I think a lot of the debate involves if clearly there is some potential for a cascading effect, how much and to what degree? That’s a big question.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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