Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's bonkers (and infuriating) to me that domestic terrorists launched an attack on their own home soil and it wasn't front page news everywhere the next day.
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What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
151–160 of 259 posts
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#152As a data point, that "overlay of Moore County’s transmission grid" on the EIA website may not be totally open access.
Trying to load the page (https://atlas.eia.gov/apps/895faaf79d744f2ab3b72f8bd5778e68/...) from Australia just now, the user interface framework loads, but none of the maps/data/etc.
Tried with both Firefox and Chromium, so it's not a browser dependency problem.
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#153FBI warns of neo-Nazi plots as attacks on Northwest power grid spike https://www.opb.org/article/2023/01/19/surge-in-oregon-washi... "As a string of attacks on electrical substations unfolded in Oregon and Washington in 2022, the FBI was warning utilities of white supremacists’ plots to take down the nation’s power grid" "The individuals of concern believe that an attack on electrical infrastructure will contribute t…
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Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#154I get the cold analysis but this was serious domestic terror which is alarming AF
The annual TEN BILLION dollar TSA was created in response to a one-off foreign terror and they do their job horribly based on all the failed testing
What's being spent on the power grid security?
How many hours, forget days, are people willing to live without power?
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
They knew enough to shoot a part that is filled with fluid and hard to replace. They might have lacked the knowledge of "the grid" to make such an attack go beyond one county, but there was some degree of thought put into that attack. It's easier to attack than defend.
> It's easier to attack than defend Interestingly, I'd wager that very little infrastructure in developed countries was designed with any thought of defending it from it's own citizens.
There is no suspects last I knew. We don't know if the perps were 'it's own citizen'.
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. I think we are speculating about intention here. Maybe they were both incorrectly identified as connected to the larger grid. Maybe the smaller one was chosen as a second target for a different reason. 2. Nothing discussed in the video is insider knowledge. Everything is public knowledge, and could have been learned with a library card and an internet connection.
Well, I'm certainly speculating. But assuming this second substation was attacked mistakenly, I think it suggests an absence of insider knowledge. I bet it was planned by a layman looking at such maps, or driving around the county and making note of where things are.
It could even be to throw us off, make it look less insidery.
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#157I watched the video with great interest, then immediately downloaded a copy from YouTube when I first saw it, because I was sure it wasn't going to be around later in the day to show my friend. I assumed it would get struck by YouTube, but here we are.
This lead me to realize that I'm now habituated to an environment where telling the truth seems like a forbidden act.
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#158This is a thought experiment. Let's say that someone (perhaps DoE) identified that the power grid was at risk of attack. Convincing a bunch of people (politicians) to spend a chunk of change to secure it would be betweeen difficult and impossible. In order to further their cause, they can stage these trivial looking attacks to attract funding to grid security. In computers, hiring pen testers is a common way to get s…
Nobody cares this much to risk everything just to get some extra security on some arbitrary thing. That's like shooting up a school to get more security around schools. Come on.
FBI did it to The Branch Davidians when the FBI budget request was being considered. FBI wanted a big story to tell on The Hill, got repulsed, and resorted to gassing everyone and burning the evidence.
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#159In hindsight, I should have guessed they targeted the oil. An acquaintance of mine worked in glass applications for electrical systems. Truly fascinating stuff; they combine the materials science of glass with the chemistry of the oil to make for very high-current fuses. The oil acts as a very good thermal conductor, but at too high a current, it expands and puts pressure against the glass insulator it's contained in…
There's a tank above the transformer that provides pressure and expansion room, that handles temperature shifts and small amounts of leakage.
The fins have a high surface area, and would surely flex outward enough to absorb any high frequency spike from a bullet.
Re: What happened with the substation attack in North Carolina?
#160It is my understanding that there was at least one death caused by the power outage.
It is my further understanding that the nature of North Carolina law is such that this makes those who committed the crime guilty of either murder or manslaughter.