Jul 02, 2019 21:00:00

A bill is passed in the US to switch power infrastructure control to 'manual' in preparation for a cyber attack

By

Wavebreakmedia

In the United States, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, National Defense Authority Bill) for fiscal year 2020 was passed in favor of the Senate bipartisan. According to the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act (Energy Infrastructure Protection Bill) included in the NDAA, the US power system may be partially switched to manual control and analog control.

Senate Passes King Bill Protecting Energy Grid from Cyber-Attacks
https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-king-bill-protecting-energy-grid-from-cyber-attacks

Senate passes cybersecurity bill to decrease grid digitization, move towards manual control | Utility Dive
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/senate-passes-cybersecurity-bill-to-decrease-grid-digitization-move-toward/557959/

The NDAA is a bill that allows the US government to define an annual defense budget. The contents of the NDAA range from military equipment such as fighters and missiles, to healthcare for military personnel, to methods of destroying chemicals and ammunition.

The 'Energy Infrastructure Protection Act' included in the NDAA passed this time will attempt to switch the US power system to non-digital control. In recent years, power system operations have been almost entirely digitized, and cyber-attacks aimed at digital control of infrastructure have become one of the government's concerns. As part of measures against such cyber attacks, methods to replace some of the digital control automated systems with human power to ensure redundancy are being considered.

1.4 million households lose power due to cyber attack on power companies-GIGAZINE

In addition to partial analogization of digital control, a council will be established to evaluate new cyber attack countermeasures developed by the National Research Institute and a council to study new strategies for cyber attacks. Countermeasures against cyber attacks are submitted to Parliament as a report after thorough consideration.

Senator

Angus King , one of the proponents of the Energy Infrastructure Protection Act, cited the case of a large-scale blackout in Ukraine due to a cyber-attack as an example: “If Ukraine does not manually operate the grid, The damage from this large-scale blackout may have been further magnified. '

Malware 'CrashOverRide', which caused a blackout in Ukraine, has the potential to disrupt the power grid and could cause global failure-GIGAZINE

According to King Sen., the bill will consider a variety of ways, including 'retro' methods of manual control by human operators to protect the most critical parts of the electrical system from cyber-attacks It is a plan.