Yemen's entire power grid taken down for a day due to terrorism

Terrorists blacked out the nation of 23 million people by destroying some of the infrastructure. This occured on June 9. In related news, last October, the Knight's Templar (a breakaway group from a drug cartel) knocked out the power grid in the Michoacan state by attacking 9 substations and leaving more than 400,000 without power. Wasn't there a recent report stating that if 9 specific substations in the U.S. were taken out, that it would knock out the entire U.S. power grid?

Here's the articles about the Yemen and Mexico attacks:
http://allenbwest.com/2014/06/islamists-rehearsing-attack-power-grid/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterde...n-in-darkness-last-week-another-wake-up-call/

I used to work security at the giant Con-Ed complex in Astoria. I was surprised that physical security still existed since a computer hacker could do a helluva lot of damage without even setting foot onto the site. Though yes, both types of security would be ideal. The Con-Ed complex is a nice juicy target. And overall, as far as physical security goes, I wasn't impressed. Though that was a few years. Hopefully things have changed since then.

Since much of our military depends heavily on the power grid run by the private sector, I would think it would be in the interest of our national security to harden the grid against physical attacks, cyber attacks like the Stuxnet virus, as well as threats of EMP from nuclear attacks and CMEs from the sun. No current plan is in place to address all of these threats as a whole, not even to harden the 9 specific substations that would take down the whole grid. The incident in San Jose not too long ago showed that a small group of people with guns can pop out of a manhole, cut fiberoptic cables to prevent word of their attack from spreading, destroy a substation, and get away clean without anyone knowing who they were. That substation fiasco could have knocked out the power to Sacramento, the state's capital. The people who did it are still on the loose.

Looks like it's a little late to defend against a cyber attack. It seems as though Russia has compromised the computer systems of over 1,000 energy firms in 84 countries over the last 18 months. The Energetic Bear Virus is malware that has allowed easy access to these energy firms' computer systems. It is capable of monitoring energy consumption in real time and can damage wind turbines, gas pipelines, and power plants with a click of the mouse. This virus is similar to the Stuxnet virus. Over half of the companies affected are in Spain (27%) and the U.S.A. (24%).

Here are the links to the news articles:
http://www.businessinsider.com/energetic-bear-virus-and-energy-companies-2014-7
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...r-virus-let-hackers-control-power-plants.html