Physical attacks on US power grid increase by 71 Percent in 2022

(MENAFN) Physical attacks on the US power grid rose by 71 Percent last year compared to 2020, according to a confidential analysis by the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC). The study found that the smaller 20Percent increase in physical attacks between 2020 and 2022 was due to the high number of serious incidents that occurred during 2020, which can be attributed to the onset of COVID, increased social tensions, and a decline in economic conditions. Ballistic damage, intrusion (tampering), and vandalism incidents drove the increase in "grid impacting" incidents since 2021. An "unusual" number of "repeat and clustered attacks" on infrastructure in the Southeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest occurred in 2022 involving "individual sites being repeatedly targeted or multiple sites being targeted within close proximity to one another."

The E-ISAC report predicts that the number of serious incidents will continue to rise this year, as there has been an actual increase in the electric industry's risk environment, and it is not just the result of fluctuations in information-sharing patterns by utilities. While the vast majority of incidents (97 Percent) resulted in no disruption of service, the remaining 3 Percent resulted in varying levels of grid impacts. One of those attacks occurred last December, with the deliberate shooting of power substations in Moore County, North Carolina, leaving 45,000 people in the dark for several days.

The report is the most comprehensive, including mandatory reporting of incidents to federal agencies or NERC, as well as voluntary disclosures made in confidence. The analysis by E-ISAC found that an increase in physical security incident sharing has increased by 11 Percent since 2021 and 25 Percent since 2020. However, the spike in grid-impacting incidents is due to an actual increase in the electric industry's risk environment, according to the report. Between 2020 and 2022, E-ISAC tracked 4,493 incidents: 502 received through mandatory reporting and 3,991 through voluntary means.

Brian Harrell, former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that new fencing, cameras, or better lighting won't prevent attacks, and they will continue to happen. He believes that we must invest in resilience, adding redundancy, and removing single points of failure. Certain attacks on critical infrastructure should be legally treated as domestic terrorism. Harrell suspects groups or individuals plotting these incidents to "go underground" in the short term because of increased attention by law enforcement recently, but he ultimately anticipates attacks will escalate in 2023.

According to industry analysis, incidents affecting power grids may occur outside the perimeter with suspects "throwing objects at electrified equipment and components to cause de-energization" and "focused ballistic attacks aimed at de-energizing equipment or causing fires by targeting a specific area of a specific component." Inside the perimeter, intrusions may occur into control houses to damage or destroy equipment, set fires or tamper with switches. While theft of copper, tools, and catalytic converters remains a challenge for the industry, there is mounting concern among industry analysts that racially motivated violent extremists, lone wolves, and radical environmentalists present an elevated threat, perhaps linked to more readily available information online about specific tactics, techniques, and procedures.

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