Lawmakers Push to Protect Power Grid

[Balog]

Ooooh! I wish I had come up with that.  Watt's wrong with me?

Ohm not sure, but he really made you look like a joule there.

[roo_ster]

Roughly 80% of mosques in America get significant portions of their budget from the KSA.  So, it is pretty safe to say that, yes, they are teaching jihad.  The two biggest mosques in the DFW area both are very pro-jihadi.  One (the Sunni) stocks jihadi lit out in the open at their book store.  Sayyid Qutb(1) being just one of the authors.  The other (s h i i t e) holds fundraising dinners in honor of Ruhollah Khomeini (2). 

So, yeah, they teach jihad.  Luckily, not all that many have actually done anything to back up their religious convictions.  Oh, well, except for funding jihad overseas via money & hardware laundering (Yet another lovely Muslim organization in DFW did that).  Perhaps they are not too keen to foul the nest, seeing as they have a pretty sweet deal here in the 'States, relative to the dunghill back home.  Likely, the most damaging influence is their mere presence in the USA.  Looking around the West, they start causing trouble once they reach a particular percentage of the population and/or can somehow leverage political power via multiculturalism.







(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid_Qutb

...an Egyptian author, educator, Islamic theorist, poet, and the leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966 he was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging...

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khomeni

[MillCreek]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211,0,7627269.story#axzz2t1KTTxX6

A better article.  Still does not look like Jethro and Cletus out on the town.

[Devonai]

Well, if the Guard wants to bring me up on orders, give me a rifle, and have me babysit a substation for awhile, I'll do it.  Nothing keeps those federal dollars flowing like real-world missions. 

[Tallpine]

Forty yards is not a particularly long shot even with an AK-47 

I've shot dogs offhand at that range.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

I get a kick out of the media's FUD-filled descriptions. 'Snipers' indeed, to hit those massive transformers (like this: http://www.hiwtc.com/products/oil-immersed-power-transformers-with-oltc-5896-59770.htm) at the incredible distance of 40 yards.
It did show some planning - cutting cable, sounds like lookouts were posted to alert the shooter(s) when cops were coming. At first I thought it was the media being drama queens (since their firearms ID skills are sorely lacking) about a bunch of redneck types with beer, ammo, and time, but now it seems a bit more serious. 
The shooting part seems strangely slow, and some articles suggest there were two shooters. 120 rounds in 20 minutes at a big target at 40 yards is not all that impressive, I could do that offhand with an SMLE and a stack of loaded stripper clips. With an AK, you ought to be done before 10 minutes with carefully aimed fire.

And of course, a ghost gun could do the deed in 2 seconds. 

[KD5NRH]

The shooting part seems strangely slow, and some articles suggest there were two shooters. 120 rounds in 20 minutes at a big target at 40 yards is not all that impressive, I could do that offhand with an SMLE and a stack of loaded stripper clips.

Isn't 6 shots a minute fairly standard for an infantryman with a Brown Bess?

[Scout26]

I get that can figure out how many shots were fired by counting brass and/or holes or dings in transformers.

Could they have used SKS's?   Maybe Tapco'd all to hell with 7 MOA accuracy at 100yards?

But how do they know how long they were there?   The time from the first transformer going down, to the last?

Perhaps they were also testing response time (both police and electric company).  


Remember the 9/11 hijackers did a few test runs prior to the big day.   And don't hold out much hope that those that wish to do us harm will stay stupid.   Some of them have western educations (like bin Laden and his engineering experience) that could also be used to evil ends.  
  

[Tallpine]

Remember the 9/11 hijackers did a few test runs prior to the big day.   And don't hold out much hope that those that wish to do us harm will stay stupid.   Some of them have western educations (like bin Laden and his engineering experience) that could also be used to evil ends. 

It's funny how great of a threat terrism is made out to be, but when some Middle Easterner actually commits mass murder then it's "workplace violence" or "isolated event not connected to Al Quaeda" 

[AZRedhawk44]

But how do they know how long they were there?   The time from the first transformer going down, to the last?

 
  

There's probably computerized logging of transformer oil pressure.  There's most certainly a log of the time that the fiber optic signal was cut, because the transformer substation will be updating central monitoring networks with operational stats on a constant basis.  So start where those log entries are missing and go from there... then query the local computer systems at the substation that track the oil pressure and other stats prior to passing them up the chain.  


ETA:  Heck, they probably know to the second, or at least a 5 second interval, when the fiber line was cut.  SNMP or QoS monitoring of the data line itself.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

There is video

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

[makattak]

There is video

Exactly. If you will find the article, they have a narration of what is seen in the video. (Not much, but indications of someone signalling with a flashlight and the actual attack.)

[KD5NRH]

Exactly. If you will find the article, they have a narration of what is seen in the video. (Not much, but indications of someone signalling with a flashlight and the actual attack.)

Looks like they were right up at the fence.  Imagine what they could have done if they'd had bolt cutters to get in with.

[makattak]

Looks like they were right up at the fence.  Imagine what they could have done if they'd had bolt cutters to get in with.

I'm fairly certain that would have gotten them on camera. I think they were more concerned with avoiding detection than maximizing the extent of damage they could cause. (Which fits with this being a probing attack.)

[Tallpine]

How hard would it be to fly an RC airplane in there trailing a strip of aluminum foil...?   

[roo_ster]

How hard would it be to fly an RC airplane in there trailing a strip of aluminum foil...?  

Not at all.  Heck i have a spindle of carbon fiber ribbon in my build kit.

[Scout26]

There is video

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Fascinating.  Care to post a link?

[MechAg94]

There's probably computerized logging of transformer oil pressure.  There's most certainly a log of the time that the fiber optic signal was cut, because the transformer substation will be updating central monitoring networks with operational stats on a constant basis.  So start where those log entries are missing and go from there... then query the local computer systems at the substation that track the oil pressure and other stats prior to passing them up the chain.  


ETA:  Heck, they probably know to the second, or at least a 5 second interval, when the fiber line was cut.  SNMP or QoS monitoring of the data line itself.

Do they log that?   Most smaller transformers in plants just have over pressure and maybe low level switches. 

[AZRedhawk44]

Do they log that?   Most smaller transformers in plants just have over pressure and maybe low level switches. 

Hell, I can log it on my car for historic trending with an OBD-II to bluetooth adapter and some database software.  I've seen guys who do this with sports cars and tablets or laptops.  Cross-reference RPM's to elevation, gear selection and exhaust O2 levels.  Things like that.

I don't know if they DO log that, but I don't see a reason why they wouldn't.  Just to simplify maintenance.

Heck, I did it 10+ years ago at a school district I used to work for.  I put every laserjet printer in the district into an SNMP monitoring app to pull fuser unit page counts and estimate the number of anticipated failures for the next year, total page count for the printer to estimate how many new printers to buy, receive reporting for specific type of paper feed errors to keep spare paper feed rollers on hand, things like that.

I'd be very depressed to learn that the only utilization of that fiber optic cable was a video feed.

[KD5NRH]

I'd be very depressed to learn that the only utilization of that fiber optic cable was a video feed.

That was the main output line; POE adapter, then bridge it to fiber.

[MillCreek]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304071004579409631825984744?mod=ITP_pageone_0&mg=reno64-wsj

A follow-up article in the WSJ about the tremendous lead time, cost and shipping time to replace power transformers, and how the grid could be crippled by taking them out. Yikes.

[Ben]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304071004579409631825984744?mod=ITP_pageone_0&mg=reno64-wsj

A follow-up article in the WSJ about the tremendous lead time, cost and shipping time to replace power transformers, and how the grid could be crippled by taking them out. Yikes.

I've been following that for a while. I can't see any economic drivers that would cause the manufacturers to build and stage many more of them than they do. I guess the .gov could make taxpayers pay to have a bunch built and staged, which might not be a terrible use of taxpayer dollars compared to some other energy related stuff our taxes go to.

It's another reason why I think the US in general, and progressives and tree huggers in particular, should spend more of their energy (ha ha) on pursuing concurrent development of individual use alternative energy sources versus stuff like giant solar farms in the desert. If houses and businesses had a few solar panels, or a wind turbine (depending on geography) or a conventional generator for that matter, in concert with grid power, if there was a grid attack, a majority of the population could still have enough power to at least keep a refrigerator and other basic and essential power going for a while. It could make the difference between a calm and orderly response to loss of the grid, and riots.

[Sawdust]

Better investment than Solyndra.

Sawdust

[makattak]

I've been following that for a while. I can't see any economic drivers that would cause the manufacturers to build and stage many more of them than they do. I guess the .gov could make taxpayers pay to have a bunch built and staged, which might not be a terrible use of taxpayer dollars compared to some other energy related stuff our taxes go to.

It's another reason why I think the US in general, and progressives and tree huggers in particular, should spend more of their energy (ha ha) on pursuing concurrent development of individual use alternative energy sources versus stuff like giant solar farms in the desert. If houses and businesses had a few solar panels, or a wind turbine (depending on geography) or a conventional generator for that matter, in concert with grid power, if there was a grid attack, a majority of the population could still have enough power to at least keep a refrigerator and other basic and essential power going for a while. It could make the difference between a calm and orderly response to loss of the grid, and riots.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/08/14/redox-power-plans-to-roll-out-dishwasher-sized-fuel-cells-that-cost-90-less-than-currently-available-fuel-cells/

I've been watching developments along these lines closely.

[Tallpine]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/08/14/redox-power-plans-to-roll-out-dishwasher-sized-fuel-cells-that-cost-90-less-than-currently-available-fuel-cells/

I've been watching developments along these lines closely.

Well, that's great if you have a NG connection 

They keep using that word "off-grid".  I don't think it means what they think it means.