I suspect that the Palo Verde training package is probably akin to the one that DoD uses for its Anti-Terrorism Level I certification on-line course. For those unfamiliar with it, the DoD training package puts one in a number of scenarios in order to reinforce points about what to do and not do should one become the target of "terrorist" activities. I found its contents fairly innocuous, if not down right inane. However, without seeing the program ised at Palo Verde, I cannot be sure that this is the case.Originally Posted by Watcher In The Middle
I think that the nation's power grids have other potential vulnerabilities that probably warrant much more concern that the story about Mr. Alavi. For one thing, the grid has a number of nodes that are single points of failure. Loss of those nodes can cripple large sections of it should those nodes go down. But then keeping the grid up is what NERC, the North America Electric Reliability Council, is supposed to be all about As another example, utilities are pushing an initiative called BPL--broadband over Power Lines--a competitor to your cable company's broadband over cable response to DSL/ISDN from your phone company. While BPL may not be a threat to the operation of the electric grid, it may provide alternative comm paths for bad guys which could be much harder to exploit by LE than other conventional comm paths. However, once one gets into a BPL pipe, one might also be able to gain access to some of the grid control data networks that flow over the same pathways--tactics like packet capture and packet replacement come to mind.
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