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Aurora Generator Test
Idaho National Laboratory ran the Aurora Generator Test in 2007 to demonstrate how a cyberattack could destroy physical components of the electric grid. The experiment used a computer program to rapidly open and close a diesel generator's circuit breakers out of phase from the rest of the grid, thereby subjecting the engine to abnormal torques and ultimately causing it to explode. This vulnerability is referred to as the ''Aurora Vulnerability''. This vulnerability is especially a concern because most grid equipment supports using Modbus and other legacy communications protocols that were designed without security in mind. As such, they do not support authentication, confidentiality, or replay protection. This means that any attacker that can communicate with the device can control it and use the Aurora Vulnerability to destroy it. Experiment To prepare for the experiment, the researchers procured and installed a 2.25 MW (3000 horsepower) generator and connected it to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurora Generator Starting To Smoke
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky. Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by the solar wind. Major disturbances result from enhancements in the speed of the solar wind from coronal holes and coronal mass ejections. These disturbances alter the trajectories of charged particles in the magnetospheric plasma. These particles, mainly electrons and protons, precipitate into the upper atmosphere ( thermosphere/exosphere). The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emit light of varying colour and complexity. The form of the aurora, occurring within bands around both polar regions, is also dependent on the amount of accelera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North American Electric Reliability Corporation
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a nonprofit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia, and formed on March 28, 2006, as the successor to the North American Electric Reliability Council (also known as NERC). The original NERC was formed on June 1, 1968, by the electric utility industry to promote the reliability and adequacy of bulk power transmission in the electric utility systems of North America. NERC's mission states that it is to "ensure the reliability of the North American bulk power system." NERC oversees six regional reliability entities and encompasses all of the interconnected power systems of Canada and the contiguous United States, as well as a portion of the Mexican state of Baja California. NERC's major responsibilities include working with all stakeholders to develop standards for power system operation, monitoring and enforcing compliance with those standards, assessing resource adequacy, and providing educational and training resour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyberwarfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic warfare. There is significant debate among experts regarding the definition of cyberwarfare, and even if such a thing exists. One view is that the term is a misnomer, since no cyber attacks to date could be described as war. An alternative view is that it is a suitable label for cyber attacks which cause physical damage to people and objects in the real world. Many countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, Israel, Iran, and North Korea have active cyber capabilities for offensive and defensive operations. As states explore the use of cyber operations and combine capabilities, the likelihood of physical confrontation and violence playing out as a result of, or part of, a cyber operation is increased. However, meeti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyberattacks
A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted areas of the system without authorization, potentially with malicious intent. Depending on the context, cyberattacks can be part of cyber warfare or cyberterrorism. A cyberattack can be employed by sovereign states, individuals, groups, societies or organisations and it may originate from an anonymous source. A product that facilitates a cyberattack is sometimes called a cyber weapon. Cyber attacks have increased with an alarming rate for the last few years A cyberattack may steal, alter, or destroy a specified target by hacking into a susceptible system. Cyberattacks can range from installing spyware on a personal computer to attempting to destroy the infrastructure of entire nations. Legal experts are seeking to limit the use of the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metcalf Sniper Attack
On April 16, 2013, an attack was carried out on Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Metcalf transmission substation in Coyote, California, near the border of San Jose. The attack, in which gunmen fired on 17 electrical transformers, resulted in more than $15 million worth of equipment damage, but it had little impact on the station's electrical power supply. Assault On the morning of April 16, 2013, a team of gunmen, using rifles, opened fire on the Metcalf Transmission Substation, severely damaging 17 transformers. Preparation Prior to the attack, a series of fiber-optic telecommunications cables operated by AT&T were cut by the culprits. Additionally, following the attack, investigators found small piles of rocks near to where the shots had been fired, the type of formations that can be used to scout firing positions. Timeline * 12:58 a.m. – AT&T fiber-optic telecommunications cables were cut not far from U.S. Route 101 just outside south San Jose. * 1:07 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
When Technology Fails
''When Technology Fails'', edited by Neil Schlager, is a collection of 103 case studies about significant technological disasters, accidents, and failures of the 20th century. It was published in 1994 by Gale Research, Inc. It was one of the top referenced books in the New York Public Library in 1995. The book was updated and re-released in 2005. The book consists of 1,000- to 1,500-word entries, arranged by subject, that discuss the background, timeline, and impact of each event. Each entry is written by journalists, engineers, and researchers, and provides a cursory overview, rather than in-depth technological analysis. Entries are supplemented by bibliographies, black-and-white photographs, charts, and other print media.Book Review. ''Booklist,'' American Library Association Accessed 2011-04-14. See also *Normal Accidents *Megaprojects and Risk *Northeast Blackout of 2003 *Brittle Power *Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vulnerability Of Nuclear Plants To Attack
The vulnerability of nuclear plants to deliberate attack is of concern in the area of nuclear safety and security. Nuclear power plants, civilian research reactors, certain naval fuel facilities, uranium enrichment plants, fuel fabrication plants, and even potentially uranium mines are vulnerable to attacks which could lead to widespread radioactive contamination. The attack threat is of several general types: commando-like ground-based attacks on equipment which if disabled could lead to a reactor core meltdown or widespread dispersal of radioactivity; and external attacks such as an aircraft crash into a reactor complex, or cyber attacks. The United States 9/11 Commission has said that nuclear power plants were potential targets originally considered for the September 11, 2001 attacks. If terrorist groups could sufficiently damage safety systems to cause a core meltdown at a nuclear power plant, and/or sufficiently damage spent fuel pools, such an attack could lead to widespread ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resilient Control Systems
In our modern society, computerized or digital control systems have been used to reliably automate many of the industrial operations that we take for granted, from the power plant to the automobiles we drive. However, the complexity of these systems and how the designers integrate them, the roles and responsibilities of the humans that interact with the systems, and the cyber security of these highly networked systems have led to a new paradigm in research philosophy for next-generation control systems. Resilient Control Systems consider all of these elements and those disciplines that contribute to a more effective design, such as cognitive psychology, computer science, and control engineering to develop interdisciplinary solutions. These solutions consider things such as how to tailor the control system operating displays to best enable the user to make an accurate and reproducible response, how to design in cybersecurity protections such that the system defends itself from attack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Programmable Logic Controller
A programmable logic controller (PLC) or programmable controller is an industrial computer that has been ruggedized and adapted for the control of manufacturing processes, such as assembly lines, machines, robotic devices, or any activity that requires high reliability, ease of programming, and process fault diagnosis. Dick Morley is considered as the father of PLC as he had invented the first PLC, the Modicon 084, for General Motors in 1968. PLCs can range from small modular devices with tens of inputs and outputs (I/O), in a housing integral with the processor, to large rack-mounted modular devices with thousands of I/O, and which are often networked to other PLC and SCADA systems. They can be designed for many arrangements of digital and analog I/O, extended temperature ranges, immunity to electrical noise, and resistance to vibration and impact. Programs to control machine operation are typically stored in battery-backed-up or non-volatile memory. PLCs were first devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City Blackout Of 1977
The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City on July 13–14, 1977. The only unaffected neighborhoods in the city were in southern Queens (including neighborhoods of the Rockaways), which were part of the Long Island Lighting Company system, as well as the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, and a few other large apartment and commercial complexes that operated their own historic power generators. Unlike other blackouts that affected the region, namely the Northeast blackouts of 1965 and 2003, the 1977 blackout was confined to New York City and its immediate surrounding areas. The 1977 blackout also resulted in citywide looting and other criminal activity, including arson, unlike the 1965 and 2003 blackouts. Prelude Lightning damage The events leading up to the blackout began on July 13 at 8:34 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, with a lightning strike at Buchanan South, a substation on the Hudson River, tripping two circuit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Power Outages
This is a list of notable wide-scale power outages. To be included, the power outage must conform to of the following criteria: * The outage must not be planned by the service provider. * The outage must affect at least 1k people. * The outage must last at least one hour. * There must be at least 1,000,000 person-hours of disruption. For example: * 1,000 people affected for 1,000 hours (42 days) or more would be included; fewer than 1,000 people would not be, regardless of duration. * One million people affected for a minimum of one hour would be included; if the duration were less than one hour, it would not, regardless of number of people. * 10,000 people affected for 100 hours, or 100,000 for 10 hours would be included. Largest Longest This method is a formula that multiplies the number of hours by the population affected and doesn't reflect the nominal time in hours that the outages lasted. 1960–1969 1965 On the evening of November 9, the Northeast blackout o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Security
Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to (relatively) cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led to significant vulnerabilities. International energy relations have contributed to the globalization of the world leading to energy security and energy vulnerability at the same time. Renewable resources exist worldwide across every biome except the North and South Poles (only nuclear (and wind in the winter) is feasible), in contrast to fossil fuels, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Nations don't switch from unpredictable fossil fuels to renewables overnight. It is a long, continuous process. Rapid deployment of renewable energy, increased energy efficiency, and diversification of energy sources, energy stores, and types of energy machines can use all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
