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| Interim Report on August 14th Blackout in US and Canada |
| 2003-11-19 |
| The US - Canada task force investigating the massive blackout of August 14th has issued an interim report. The report is 134 pages long and begins with a good overview of the grid and current operational approaches, including the various agencies and companies involved. Money quote: The SWG (Security Working Group) acknowledges reports of al-Qaeda claims of responsibility for the August 14, 2003 blackout; however, those reports are not consistent with the SWG’s findings to date. There is also no evidence, nor is there any indication suggesting, that viruses and worms prevalent across the Internet at the time of the outage had any significant impact on power generation and delivery systems. SWG analysis to date has brought to light certain concerns with respect to: the possible failure of alarm software; links to control and data acquisition software; and the lack of a system or process for some operators to view adequately the status of electric systems outside their immediate control. Time to look at how the grid integrates. |
| Posted by:rkb |