Of all critical infrastructure sectors, utilities have been the most popular for targeted physical attacks lately. In fact, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)'s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), there were almost 1,700 physical security incidents reported to the E-ISAC in 2022, an increase of 10.5% from 2021.
While typical physical security incidents against utilities and substations involve vandalism, tampering, arson, and ballistic damage, most do not result in grid impacts; however, a trend toward more serious events occurred in 2022. As reported extensively in November 2022, a series of attacks occurred at six different substation facilities in Oregon and Washington state, five of which resulted in power disruptions. Then in December, gunfire disabled radiators and circuit breakers in two North Carolina substations, causing major outages for 42,000 customers during a cold spell in the area; and two Seattle substations were damaged resulting in Christmas outages.
Shift in Attack Vector
As far as substation attacks go, the recent spate of activity points to a marked rise in ballistic attacks, where bad actors are attempting to disable the power grid by strategically targeting vulnerable assemblies within the substation with gunfire, as exhibited in the North Carolina attacks.
Found On Mainstream Media