Secret NSA Cybersecurity Program Aims to Defend US Power Grid

Threats to the grid seem to be rising. In recent months, he notes, DHS has issued reports about cyberattacks against utility companies whose business computer networks also have industrial networks connected to the grid.

Last month, DHS reported that federal cyberresponse teams recently provided on-site support "at a power generation facility where both common and sophisticated malware had been discovered in the industrial control system environment."

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The DHS team also performed preliminary on-site analysis of those machines and "discovered signs of the sophisticated malware on two engineering workstations." Both machines were "critical to the operation of the control environment."

President Obama is reported to be nearing announcement of an executive order that would expand federal protection to include the power grid and other critical infrastructure networks. Cybersecurity legislation failed in the last Congress. The White House has said that it prefers a comprehensive bill, but that the matter is too urgent to wait any longer.