Time to Stop Hitting the Cyber Snooze Button on US Infrastructure

[Commentary] Power grids have proven to be vulnerable to cyber terrorists. Hackers interrupted a regional power supply abroad (in the Ukraine), and white hat hackers in the Midwest recently demonstrated there’s nothing special about our own grid that would protect our systems from the eventuality of a similar – and potentially much more damaging – fate. Those of us who make our bread and butter in the world of cyber defense have long warned of the possibility of cyberattacks that could threaten our critical infrastructure, our economy and our very way of life by extension.

In July, new legislation was introduced in the Senate to protect our electrical infrastructure from cyberattack. The Securing Energy Infrastructure Act proposes taking our industrial control systems offline in an effort to isolate them from insidious threats that can lurk in our always-on and always-connected networks. While this approach might be a bit unconventionally retro in nature, it is heartening to see members of Congress working with industry to think about new (and old) ways to address a very real and difficult challenge. But further thinking and action are needed on a global scale. By working with our allies and industrial partners across the globe to ensure information sharing about cyberthreats and attacks, we can do much to further secure our collective online existence. The consequences of oversleeping are far too great to consider ignoring the alarm for an extra nine minutes of peace.

[Jack Harrington is vice president of cybersecurity and special missions at Raytheon]