Pacific Gas & Electric substation attack, April 16, 2013

[Logan]

Hope this isn't a repost; apologies if so.

California, April 16, 2013. Someone(s) hit a Pacific Gas & Electric electrical power substation in the early morning hours. Reports indicate that after cutting underground telecommunications cables, 100s of rounds fired from rifles knocked out multiple transformers. Plenty of 7.62x39 shell casings were left behind, no fingerprints. Then Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman, Jon Wellinghoff, brought in a team from the U.S. Navy’s Dahlgren Surface Warfare Center in Virginia. The team reportedly assessed it as a professional job. PG&E and local law enforcement deemed it "vandalism." There doesn't seem to have been a lot of follow-up on this until the WSJ ran an article on it back in February. (link included, but sub required)

I was living in Michigan in 2003 during the Northeast blackout. 45,000,000 Americans were effected and without power. It was an uncomfortable couple of days for folks. I'm wondering if this was a black-op red-team-type penetration test, or a group of terrorists gathering intel. Maybe a pissed off former-employee? What do you folks make of it?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rceLQ0zgRkg

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/02/how-has-the-most-significant-incident-of-domestic-terrorism-involving-the-enery-grid-gone-largely-unreported-for-10-months/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/06/2013-sniper-attack-on-power-grid-still-concern-in-washington-and-for-utilities/
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579359141941621778?mg=ren o64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB1000 1424052702304851104579359141941621778.html
http://allenbwest.com/2014/04/2013-sniper-attack-ca-power-grid-preparation-act-war/

[Monky]

Repost... It actually made the news a few months back and got zero attention


Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.

[Logan]

Damnit. I swear I searched threads beforehand.

Edit - found it. MOds feel free to delete. https://www.ar-15.co/threads/125477-Sniper-attack-on-power-substation-4-13?highlight=grid+attack

[mindfold]

In before the lock..... PG&E is a client of mine during this attack. There were plenty of scared people when it happened. THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING!!! Joe Public has no clue how easy it is to disrupt power to a major city. A couple of key substations around the Denver area and it would result in a black out for days if not weeks depending on the time of year.

[rondog]

A serious pro attack would involve explosives. Ya gonna do it, do it right.

[mindfold]

That sad thing is it wouldn't require "fancy" explosives.

[merl]

A serious pro attack would involve explosives. Ya gonna do it, do it right.

Why if they are not required?

[Ridge]

A serious pro attack would involve explosives. Ya gonna do it, do it right.

Not really necessary. The conductors for these stations are ceramic, and production queues are I think it was 18 months behind, so destroying those could cause catastrophic damage to the power grid for a long time.

[Gman]

As discussed in the other thread, these transformers are oil cooled and insulated. If you perforate the radiators or casing and drain the oil, you remove the transformer from the system. They're not hard targets.

Ceramics are typically used as insulators, not conductors.

[rondog]

Did they succeed? Can't recall ever hearing about this.

[merl]

Did they succeed? Can't recall ever hearing about this.

They killed those transformers and got away with it.
The big public release a couple months back was in hopes of generating a lead and I haven't heard anything further.

Was expensive to fix but it didn't shut off power. Hooray for redundancy.

[rondog]

Seems like I recall the last big blackout was caused by a tripped breaker at some power station, and it just snowballed? Odd that an attack on a power station like that didn't work. Our power grid is a disaster waiting to happen, from what I hear. Pretty friggin' scary when you think about it. I don't have no generator, never known anybody that did.

[Logan]

I wonder sometimes, given the alleged weakness of our power/water/SCADA systems, why these have not been attacked.

[kidicarus13]

I wonder sometimes, given the alleged weakness of our power/water/SCADA systems, why these have not been attacked.

By whom?

[Logan]

Islamic extremists, Luddites, all encompassing mentally deranged? I mean that anyone who intends an intelligent and coordinated attack, intent on inflicting massive collaterial damage. I am limited in my understanding, but given the apparent weaknessnes of these critical components of infrastrucure, why haven't these assets been targeted more actively?

[<MADDOG>]

I don't think our infrastructure is as vulnerable as you think (again, I say think)

Terrorists, foreign and domestic, go for the "bang for the buck" philosophy. IE: cause as many deaths as quickly as possible with minimal exposure. This act doesn't "fit" into the typical terrorist play based on methodology and history (IE: they wish to cause fear NOW, and not 10 days from now).

In regards to your fears about the water supply; I can assure you, any and all public water is tested extensively for shit you wouldn't imagine (including shit and storm water).

IMO, you suspicions might be right; but I highly doubt it...

[cableguy11]

Seems like I recall the last big blackout was caused by a tripped breaker at some power station, and it just snowballed? Odd that an attack on a power station like that didn't work. Our power grid is a disaster waiting to happen, from what I hear. Pretty friggin' scary when you think about it. I don't have no generator, never known anybody that did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Southwest_blackout last major blackout that I recall.

[KestrelBike]

Islamic extremists, Luddites, all encompassing mentally deranged? I mean that anyone who intends an intelligent and coordinated attack, intent on inflicting massive collaterial damage. I am limited in my understanding, but given the apparent weaknessnes of these critical components of infrastrucure, why haven't these assets been targeted more actively?

probably the same reason that buses in major US cities haven't been blown up. I don't know why, either. Blowing those up was a pretty effective method of terrorizing the populace in Israel, and really not even one attempt (that we know of) to do the same here in the US.

[rockhound]

the us gov't has published warnings just recently about a emp taking out the grid and that they are worried about it.

[merl]

the us gov't has published warnings just recently about a emp taking out the grid and that they are worried about it.

An EMP attack is fear mongering at its worst.

This substation attack showed that equipment can be damaged by a rifle (shocker) but beyond putting up visual screens there is little that can be done about it (that is cost effective given a single attack). It also showed that a single substation taken out does not kill the grid (of course, they do have to go offline for maintenance). It takes multiple stations, a coordinated attack (no lone wolves) to actually shut down power.

[rondog]

I wonder sometimes, given the alleged weakness of our power/water/SCADA systems, why these have not been attacked.

OK, what the fuck does SCADA mean? People and their goddamned acronyms......

[merl]

OK, what the fuck does SCADA mean? People and their goddamned acronyms......

supervisory control and data acquisition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA)

[Gman]

supervisory control and data acquisition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA)
Oh, the Federal Government, including the NSA. Thanks for the clarification.

[mindfold]

Oh, the Federal Government, including the NSA. Thanks for the clarification.

I has to do with reporting generation of power plants and electrical demand on the system.

[hollohas]

I have been following this since it first happened and continue to be surprised about the lack of coverage. However, something I just thought of...wonder if the bad guys who shot up the substation chose that day because the news was 100% tunnel vision focused on the Boston Marathon attack and subsequent manhunt? Just a coincidence I'm sure...but a weird one.

[TFOGGER]

This may have been a "proof of concept" exercise in preparation for a concerted attack later. Being able to disable these substations with readily available small arms rather than rarer means is a huge advantage for someone bent on exploiting mayhem.