Security News > 2021 > April > Biden Races to Shore Up Power Grid Against Hacks
President Biden is putting the final details on a plan to encourage American electric utilities to strengthen their cybersecurity protections against hackers in the next 100 days, amid increasing cyberattacks.
The White House push to boost electrical grid security comes in the wake of a report that a full quarter of the 1,500 utilities across North America were infected with the SolarWinds malware, now formally attributed to Russian state actors.
Against this backdrop, a six-page draft of the plan was created by the National Security Council and described to Bloomberg News, which reported that the government will offer incentives to utilities to install monitoring software to spot hackers and then report any suspicious activity to the federal government to coordinate a response.
The collapse of the unregulated Texas power grid in February during an intense winter storm was a stark reminder of how deadly the loss of electricity can be.
Early reports from state officials said 57 people died because of the power loss, but ABC News reported that is likely a drastic undercount.
Beyond this 100-day cybersecurity push for power grids, the Biden infrastructure plan includes a $100 billion investment toward creating a "More resilient grid, lower energy bills for middle-class Americans, improve air quality and public health outcomes and create good jobs, with a chance to join a union, on the path to achieving 100-percent, carbon-free electricity by 2035." Part of that could be earmarked for cybersecurity efforts.