Should Homeland Security Control the Electrical Grid?

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
You know, I think I'm going to go with my gut on this one and say "HELL NO!"

The electrical grid is commonly cited as a potential security issue for the U.S. And in a wide-ranging study on the matter, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that the time has come for the U.S. government to focus a single agency's efforts on doing a better job of securing it.
Click to expand...
 
No. They can guard it if they wish, but leave it alone otherwise.
 
worry about the internet first... you cant even keep your own departments safe.
 
... yeah, this sounds like a great idea. The same people who make old ladies take off their diapers at airports in charge of the electrical grid...

Hell no.
 
time has come for the U.S. government to focus a single agency's efforts on doing a better job of *_______ it
Click to expand...

*Fill in the blank

Also, how do you guard something as complex as the electric grid. How do you stop someone from driving up to a substation with a truck full of explosives and blowing it up sky high?
 
Wait...so they are there to stop teh terrorists. But the "homes" of the terrorists have been invaded, and there hasn't been any major attacks since...a long time ago. Why do they still exist? Plus if it was an attack big enough to take down the whole grid, pretty sure the army would get involved. :p
 
Not only no, but it should be dissolved along with the patriot act and the TSA.
 
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
 
Thanks to scare tactics the government can do whatever they please under the guise of anti-terrorism and get away with it.

pathetic.
 
we have enough issues with the power grid then letting them take control of it nothing would ever get done like switching to 220v!:rolleyes:
 
the-one1 said:
*Fill in the blank

Also, how do you guard something as complex as the electric grid. How do you stop someone from driving up to a substation with a truck full of explosives and blowing it up sky high?
Click to expand...

Or transmission towers, it is impossible to secure the infrastructure.
But no, the security is for the control equipment at stations/substations. Already been done at one transmission company for years.
 
the-one1 said:
*Fill in the blank

Also, how do you guard something as complex as the electric grid. How do you stop someone from driving up to a substation with a truck full of explosives and blowing it up sky high?
Click to expand...

You don't even need explosives. 5 people with shotguns drive up to 5 separate substations and shoot down the high-tension lines. They don't even need to be near the substation, they could shoot down the lines in the middle of nowhere by taking ATVs or snowmobiles in, and it would take weeks for the electric company to get the equipment in that they need there.
 
the-one1 said:
*Fill in the blank

Also, how do you guard something as complex as the electric grid. How do you stop someone from driving up to a substation with a truck full of explosives and blowing it up sky high?
Click to expand...

Private mercenaries. They'll hire J&R and Ravenwood to guard them under TSA's authority. We'll be subjected to strip searches every time we need to make phone calls or flip light switches in our homes.
 
Wouldn't this be redundant if we all migrated over to solar power? You know, something we should have done so years ago.
 
Well...hear me out on this....although they have the potential to screw it all up and we can see repeated evidence of that...on the plus side, our electrical grid is a nightmare. It's held together by duct tape and rubber bands. It's primitive in comparison to some of our other infrastructure and we have fallen behind on this in comparison to some other parts of the world.

One of the huge reasons is that it has many, many owners who are not rewarded in any way shape or form to fix it for the common good or to help out other parties (that could be and probably are:) their competition. So, due to selfish interests it never gets the right funds dedicated to fix the whole thing. Everyone's worried about their own patch, but not the interoperability.

So, if government could sort of be the board of directors or enforcement point and put a lot more pressure on a total solution, it would really be the right move.

Having said that, we would then have to contend with lobbyists and special interests that would mangle to whole thing....which is incredibly sad. But, the grid is in some serious need of big time updating and the job creation that would entail.

For some fascinating reading on the grid (well written and well entertaining) although also about big business I would recommend The Big Switch.
 
The best way to keep the grid safe is to keep it off the damn internet completely and reduce the risk of cascade failures.

The only thing the government is good at is wasting money and providing opportunities for cronyism and corruption.
 
tel1jag said:
So, if government could sort of be the board of directors or enforcement point and put a lot more pressure on a total solution, it would really be the right move.

Having said that, we would then have to contend with lobbyists and special interests that would mangle to whole thing....which is incredibly sad. But, the grid is in some serious need of big time updating and the job creation that would entail.
Click to expand...

I can see it now.... The Grid to Nowhere.

We would have no bid contracts going to whoever contributed the most, or the district of whoever has the most power. Meanwhile the rest of the grid would be even worse off. I can see rolling blackouts is this happens. Just look at California which has one of the most regulated electrical systems, where we import more power than any other state because we no longer build power plants due the the regulations.
 
And how the hell do they think they are going to "secure" this amorphous, massive distributed network of high tension wires, exactly ?

Sounds to me like a good way to light some money on fire. No thanks.
 
Ashbringer said:
Wouldn't this be redundant if we all migrated over to solar power? You know, something we should have done so years ago.
Click to expand...

As in, everything, everywhere would have solar panels on it ? All 500,000 MW of electricity usage in the entire country ? So there would be no need for electrical wires at all ?

Right. Pretty sure enough solar panels to do that have not - in aggregate - been built in the entire world to even come close.

And who is going to pay for or install these 500,000,000 solar panels ?
 
tel1jag said:
Well...hear me out on this....although they have the potential to screw it all up and we can see repeated evidence of that...on the plus side, our electrical grid is a nightmare. It's held together by duct tape and rubber bands. It's primitive in comparison to some of our other infrastructure and we have fallen behind on this in comparison to some other parts of the world.

One of the huge reasons is that it has many, many owners who are not rewarded in any way shape or form to fix it for the common good or to help out other parties (that could be and probably are:) their competition. So, due to selfish interests it never gets the right funds dedicated to fix the whole thing. Everyone's worried about their own patch, but not the interoperability.

So, if government could sort of be the board of directors or enforcement point and put a lot more pressure on a total solution, it would really be the right move.

Having said that, we would then have to contend with lobbyists and special interests that would mangle to whole thing....which is incredibly sad. But, the grid is in some serious need of big time updating and the job creation that would entail.

For some fascinating reading on the grid (well written and well entertaining) although also about big business I would recommend The Big Switch.
Click to expand...
And the fact that the government that would allegedly do this is ALREADY BROKE. There is no money for this boondoggle.
 
Ive seen this brought up a few times. I'm of the opinion that public utilities and their control systems should be on a seperate system NOT accessible from the public internet, PERIOD. Same thing with military systems, if it's storing / processing classified or sensitive material it's put on a private network that is physically seperate from the public network. As for physical security, there is no way to cover everything all at once, but with a lot of infrastructure systems moving underground that takes away some of the vulnerability, however there is always the above ground items that are unable to me moved or hidden, like very large high tension lines and satellite dishes / radio towers etc. Cameras and armed guards work there. The government is completely incompetent to run anything let alone be solely responsible for the internet or power grid. This would be a disaster both in resources and finances from an already broke government. Just my 2 cents.
 
Ashbringer said:
Wouldn't this be redundant if we all migrated over to solar power? You know, something we should have done so years ago.
Click to expand...

Stop being naive. You know damn well that the terrorists have the capability to steal the Sun. The only reason it hasn't happened is because of the protection our government gives us. Giddafi was planning on stealing the Sun in the name of Allah and they were going to hold it hostage. Thats why we had to kill him.
 
They've done such a flawless job with airport security and rescuing us from counterfeit handbags. They'll do a fantastic job on our electrical grid, and will in no way use this power as a platform for eroding our rights. I'm sure of it!
 
And this thread, my friends, demonstrates why I love this forum
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top