EVs, Smart Appliances Pose Cybersecurity Risks
Electric vehicles and smart appliances, whose popularity among Americans is growing, pose a potential cybersecurity risk, a recent report from the Government Office of Accountability has warned.
“A growing number of consumers are using networked consumer devices that are connected to the grid’s distribution systems, such as electric vehicles and charging stations, and smart inverters,” the authors of the report said.
“These devices can be high wattage, which means they can demand a high amount of electricity from the grid. However, distribution utilities have limited visibility and influence on the use and cybersecurity of these devices because consumers typically control them, according to officials from a national laboratory.”
The GAO noted it had earlier established that so-called networked consumer devices could be vulnerable to cyberattacks with hackers capable of compromising a high number of these devices by infecting them with malware and turning them into a botnet. The botnet could then be used to launch a large-scale attack on the grid.
For now, the risk is relatively low, the GAO said but warned that as the number of EVs and smart devices increases, so will the vulnerability of the grid from the direction of networked devices.
It is not just EVs and smart devices that increase the vulnerability of the U.S. grid, either. Rooftop solar installations could be potentially risky, too, according to the report.
“Distributed energy resources are increasingly connected to the grid’s distribution systems and may be leveraged in a cyberattack,” the authors wrote. “These devices can include rooftop solar units and battery storage units. When connected to the grid’s distribution systems, such devices may introduce vulnerabilities, according to federal officials we interviewed.”
Cyber vulnerability could be one aspect of the energy transition agenda that has so far remained overlooked. This agenda features both distributed energy systems and EVs heavily.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Stay or go? Fence, Guard pose Capitol security questions |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nobody, it seems, wants to keep the security fence around the U.S. Capitol anymore — except the police who fought rioters Jan. 6.
Lawmakers call the razor-topped fencing “ghastly,” too militarized and, with the armed National Guard troops still stationed at the Capitol since a pro-Trump mob laid siege, not at all representative of the world’s leading icon of democracy.
“All you have to do is to see the fencing around the Capitol to be shocked,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said in an interview Friday.
How to protect lawmakers, while keeping the bucolic Capitol grounds open to visitors has emerged as one of the more daunting, questions from deadly riot. Not since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has security been so elevated, and the next steps so uncertain, for the Capitol complex.
Five people died after the mob stormed the building trying to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election over Republican Donald Trump. The former president was impeached by the House, and acquitted by the Senate, for inciting the insurrection.
The U.S. Capitol Police has asked for the fencing and the National Guard to remain, for now.
Police officers are working grueling round-the-clock overtime shifts after being overrun that day, engaging at times in hand-to-hand combat with rioters outfitted in combat gear and armed with bats, poles and other weaponry. One woman was shot and killed by police and an officer died later, among scores of police injured in what officials have said appeared to be a planned and coordinated assault.
With warnings of another attack in early March by pro-Trump militants and threats on lawmakers that have nearly doubled since the start of 2021, the police, the Pentagon and lawmakers themselves are wrestling with how best to secure what has been a sprawling campus mostly open to visiting tourists and neighborhood dog walkers alike.
“The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th forever changed how we look at the ‘People’s House,'” acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said in written testimony before Congress in February.
She said that even before the 9/11 attacks, security experts, including…
Stay or go? Fence, Guard pose Capitol security questions – WAVY.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nobody, it seems, wants to keep the security fence around the U.S. Capitol anymore — except the police who fought off the horrific attackon Jan. 6.
Lawmakers call the razor-topped fencing “ghastly,” too militarized and, with the armed National Guard troops still stationed at the Capitolsince a pro-Trump mob laid siege, not at all representative of the world’s leading icon of democracy.
“All you have to do is to see the fencing around the Capitol to be shocked,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said in an interview Friday.
How to protect lawmakers, while keeping the bucolic Capitol grounds open to visitors has emerged as one of the more daunting, wrenching questions from deadly riot. Not since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has security been so elevated, and the next steps so uncertain, for the Capitol complex.
Five people died after the mob stormed the building trying to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election over Republican Donald Trump. The former president was impeachedby the House, and acquitted by the Senate, for inciting the insurrection.
The U.S. Capitol Police has asked for the fencing and the National Guard to remain, for now.
Police officers are working grueling round-the-clock overtime shifts after being overrun that day, engaging at times in hand-to-hand combat with rioters outfitted in combat gear and armed with bats, poles and other weaponry. One woman was shot and killed by police and an officer died later, among scores of police injured in what officials have said appeared to be a planned and coordinated assault.
With warningsof another attack in early March by pro-Trump militants and threats on lawmakers that have nearly doubled since the start of 2021, the police, the Pentagon and lawmakers themselves are wrestling with how best to secure what has been a sprawling campus mostly open to visiting tourists and neighborhood dog walkers alike.
“The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th forever changed how we look at the ‘People’s House,’” acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said in written testimony before Congress in February.
She said that even before the…
DC riots: Attack on Capitol may pose cybersecurity risk
The pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday that stormed the Senate floor and Capitol rotunda may have breached more than just the building’s physical security.
Photos show rioters in congressional offices, including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Any computers left on could be vulnerable, and so could papers — such as personal schedules or mail — that weren’t locked away, information security experts said. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said his office was ransacked and a laptop stolen. Officials also said multiple electronic items were taken from the building, according to CNN.
What does this mean for the security of the nation’s information? Here are insights from experts who spoke with The Times.
Does the invasion of the Capitol pose a cybersecurity risk?
It depends. If rioters got their hands on congressional computers that were still logged in, they may have been able to access information. But if those computers were encrypted, they wouldn’t be able to get anything, said Jesse Varsalone, associate professor of computer networks and cybersecurity at University of Maryland Global Campus.
However, if a computer was encrypted but documents were left open onscreen, that information would already have been decrypted and could have been read, said Suzanne Spaulding, an advisor to Nozomi Networks and former undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security. That means members of the mob could have snapped images of documents such as emails.
“I would not assume right off the bat that the folks who broke into the Capitol yesterday, forced their way in, had folks whose objective and skillset was to use their physical access to gain access to the IT system, to sensitive information,” she said. “But … if someone takes a laptop, they can later decide, ‘Hey, this could be really interesting. I don’t have the skills to exploit it, but I’m going to find someone who does.’”
The theft of a laptop, as from Merkley’s office, poses special concern because the machine is part of a federal network and could help outsiders access the entire network.
“That’s the concern about a stolen laptop,” Spaulding said. “It’s not just…