Grid cybersecurity: how big is the threat & what should we do about it?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeCould the US grid be brought down by Chinese hackers? To find out, I talked with Patrick Miller, who helped write the cybersecurity rules for the bulk power system and became the first person with federal authority to enforce them. We get into what's actually been hacked, why those "rogue devices" in Chinese inverters are less sinister than they sound, and why squirrels still do more damage than hackers.Chapters:00:00 – Introduction02:47 – What state utility commissioners get wrong about cyber risk04:50 – Real attacks on the grid so far: Ukraine, Poland, and the US06:57 – IT versus OT, and why grid devices are hard to protect10:30 – The NERC CIP standards: scope, requirements, enforcement17:40 – Distributed resources outside the CIP perimeter20:54 – Dropping the threshold to 20 MVA, and federal jurisdiction29:12 – Chinese inverters and the commodity board36:09 – Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, and China's intent39:26 – Data centers as a new attack surface43:19 – The trade-off between security and speed47:44 – Cyber-informed engineering and analog safeguards54:05 – AI on offense and defense1:02:21 – Squirrels, balloons, and physical threats1:04:24 – CISA cuts, CIRCIA, and harmonizing the rules