By Daniel Jennings – Off The Grid News
America’s energy grid is under constant attack by hackers and cyber criminals, with 79 incidents during fiscal year 2014 alone.
The year before, there were 145.
The data is from the US Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which is documenting a growing threat against poorly defended infrastructure, CNN reported. More than a third of the attacks made it through the first layer of defense.
“Our grid is definitely vulnerable,” said David Kennedy, the CEO of the security firm Trusted Sec. “The energy industry is pretty far behind most other industries when it comes to security best practices and maintaining systems.”
Should the power grid go down for just a single week, it is estimated approximately 1 million Americans likely would die from a lack of medical care and sanitation, and from civil unrest. If the power grid stays down a year, two-thirds of the population (200 million people) could die from starvation, a lack of medicine and lawlessness, according to the EMP Commission report to Congress.