(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) According to testimony from Manny Cancel, senior vice president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the American power grid may face rising threats from Chinese Communist Party.
Cancel detailed the possibility of a Chinese cyberattack on the American power grid, which would push civilian and military sites offline and leaving the U.S. vulnerable to attack, the Daily Caller reported Tuesday.
“The Chinese activities are … quite alarming,” Cancel testified Tuesday to the House Energy Committee.
“Chinese cyber activities are one of the most dynamic cyber threats,” he added. “China continues to demonstrate increasing sophistication, including new and adaptive techniques to gain access to networks.”
A threat assessment report from February detailed China’s cyber capabilities, and arrived at the conclusion that China was “almost certainly” able to attack infrastructure such as railways and oil and gas pipelines.
Chinese hackers infiltrated email accounts of several employees in the State Department. as well as Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The hackers also attacked 13 private companies that owned oil and gas pipelines between 2011-2013, stealing sensitive data concerning the operations of the internal workings of the organizations.
“[CCP hackers continue] to demonstrate how patient they are, how stealthy they are, and, as you’ve seen during recent attacks, they’re actually quite adept at obfuscating what they’re trying to do,” Cancel testified.
Recently, actor Dennis Quaid released a documentary about the fragility of the American power grid and the cataclysm that would take place if it failed, titled Grid Down, Power Up.
“There have been several attacks on substations. I heard about one a couple of months ago,” Quaid said. “Just 30 days without electricity, it would take us back to 1880. You wouldn’t be able to get gas. You wouldn’t be able to get food.”
In the documentary, Quaid explained that China manufactured and imported the majority of American electrical equipment, such as transformers and generators.
“This is something that if it does happen, it’s going to make COVID look like a kids show,” Quaid said. “We keep talking about it, but nothing ever gets done.”
