"Military-Style' Raid on California Power Station Spooks U.S."

reply to post by Eidolon23


My first guess was going to be a cartel, maybe they wanted to rob someone that night and wanted to knock their security (which may have led to the police being called) out.. but the Union/AT&T idea sounds pretty good to me too.

reply to post by jtma508

Nah. Don't need a high rate of fire. Most large distribution transformers are filled with a type of oil to provide internal electrical insulation and cooling. One hit with a high powered rifle to drain the oil and the transformer will fail. Do that to a number of transformers and you can imagine the calamity. Don't need high rate of fire. Scoped 30-06 (or thereabouts) hunting rifle would be just about perfect.

Like they need any more reason to get all paranoid and try to
confiscate our firearms?
You have to watch what you say now days pardna !

I can hear Fienstien now, freak'n out all over the place.

FriedBabelBroccoli
reply to post by Eidolon23

 

Firing 'high powered' rifles at transformers?

WTF do they think this is a video game?

I've done this myself, and I can tell you if you do it just right, it can be really spectacular and endlessly amusing. Big substations and HV switchyards offer a wealth of entertainment.

What you have to wonder is, what area did that substation service, and what might have been going on while this distraction was occurring?

eta: To clarify, not in the US. Taking out the power infrastructure in an area where you're about to do something unsocial is SOP. That, and if you've got the time and opportunity, you take out the comms.

Look into the suspected attack around the same time of a Nuclear facility on the East Coast. Guard was injured if I remember correctly. This is also the same time as that Fertilizer plant explosion in Texas that fell off the radar...

reply to post by Eidolon23


This sounds more like a revolt to me.....if it was terrorists id like to think they would have hit many at the same time really causing issues all over....would have taken 20 guys then to do 10 attacks in one state...why just use 2 guys.....my guess its two dudes that have had it...and this is their way of striking back against possibly anti gov beliefs...or maybe ex workers who are pissed for some reason.

So they coincidentally cut the emergency services lines,huh?I don't believe in coincidence.I think someone was looking for those exactlines and now they know where they are for sure.

reply to post by Eidolon23


Yeah, I was reading somewhere that politicians are already lining up to scapegoat cyber terrorism on power substations to pass through internet regulation.

My question is, why on earth are our power plants any where near the internet? Seems like a pretty dumb idea...

reply to post by Eidolon23


If not for the Boston Marathon timing i'd say it sounds more like prep for a robbery of some kind. Serves as diversion, confusion and possibly disabling an alarm system here and there.

To me... it appears to have been a practice run by our security teams. Of course it would
probably be kept hush hush. You know what I'm talking about... the whole emergency
preparedness stuff to see just how easy an attack would be so that we can study and
learn what the weaknesses are and improve upon them.

I would not tend toward it being a dry run for a terrorist group. It takes away one of
the most horrifying things of a terrorist attack which is to debilitate by surprise.
Doing a dry run, makes us aware of the intentions and gives us time to prepare.
So if it were a group, while the attack may have come across as having a high level
of planning and sophistication, the end result left us looking in that direction to
become better prepared.


leolady

leolady

To me... it appears to have been a practice run by our security teams. Of course it would
probably be kept hush hush. You know what I'm talking about... the whole emergency
preparedness stuff to see just how easy an attack would be so that we can study and
learn what the weaknesses are and improve upon them.
leolady

Well, that sounds reasonable but we pretty much know that we have no security for our infrastructure. In Europe, you see armed guards at substations. Here, not so much. You do get some classes on how to shut down substations and how to break them more permanently. And there's a really slick assault trainer for mounting an attack or defense on a nuclear power plant that's a SAP.

reply to post by Eidolon23


ok this evidently was to cover something else up maybe a high end theft/

reply to post by Bedlam


I'm sure the people on medical devices found it endlessly amusing too.

They actually did do this type of training in mock simulated scenarios at the Grid Ex II for 2013
which took place in November.

Take a look at this article, it explains some of what they did in this exorcise. It involved mock
physical attacks, not just cyber. It is eerily similar to the situation in the OP's post. Maybe this
incident forced them to wake up and look at the vulnerabilities as being more than just cyber related.

Also incorporated into the GridEx II exercise were active shooter scenarios that lead to fatalities. Throughout the country, bulk-power employees were tasked with working with local law enforcement agencies to handle simulated snipers shooting inside of substations and destroying key infrastructure.

“Once utilities decided to send investigative personal and law enforcement, it turned into an active shooter scenario,” said Harrell.

Harrell went on to note that these mock attacks required utility operators to walk through their internal procedures while working with local law enforcement and eventually FBI agents.

“It was a task to the extreme that pushed the envelope,” he said.

Harrell told Foster’s that the simulated physical attacks opened the eyes of NERC officials in the sense that much of their focus had been on preventing and handling cyber attacks.

www.fosters.com.../20131124/GJNEWS_01/131129576/-1/FOSNEWS04

leolady

fenson76
reply to post by Bedlam

 

I'm sure the people on medical devices found it endlessly amusing too.

I have my doubts about the fate of vent dependent patients in that entire area of the world.

reply to post by Bedlam


not just ventilators but i have no idea where you are talking about. Speaking as someone who uses medical equipment to live (not a vent).