Drone Used In Attack On US Electrical Grid Last Year, Report Reveals (newscientist.com) 54
A modified consumer drone was used in an attack on an electrical substation in the US last year, according to a report from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center. New Scientist reports: The report, which is being circulated to law enforcement agencies in the US, highlights the incident at a substation in Pennsylvania last year as the first known use of a drone to target energy infrastructure in the US. The location isn't specifically identified, but the drone crashed without causing damage. The drone was modified with a trailing tether supporting a length of copper wire. If the wire had come into contact with high-voltage equipment it could have caused a short circuit, equipment failures and possibly fires.
Electrical substations are normally protected by fences and other barriers, but Zak Kallenborn at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in Maryland says these may not be sufficient against drones. [...] Counter-drone jammers are deployed at some locations but cannot defend every electrical substation, due to both cost and limitations on where they can be used. Kallenborn notes that while such drones only carry a tiny payload compared to a car bomb, they can cause a disproportionate amount of damage by targeting vulnerable spots. "Critical infrastructure owners and operators need to identify critical, sensitive components where small charges can cause significant harm to the facility's operation," says Kallenborn.
Electrical substations are normally protected by fences and other barriers, but Zak Kallenborn at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in Maryland says these may not be sufficient against drones. [...] Counter-drone jammers are deployed at some locations but cannot defend every electrical substation, due to both cost and limitations on where they can be used. Kallenborn notes that while such drones only carry a tiny payload compared to a car bomb, they can cause a disproportionate amount of damage by targeting vulnerable spots. "Critical infrastructure owners and operators need to identify critical, sensitive components where small charges can cause significant harm to the facility's operation," says Kallenborn.
Inspired by WW2 (Score:2)
Re:Inspired by WW2 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Inspired by WW2 (Score:4, Insightful)
It was... WW2 I'm pretty sure, that this was first inspired by. They did it with balloons, I think it was Britain using it against Germany. Only slightly effective though.
I was with a fellow security professional touring a hosting facility. As we were walking past the electrified fences surrounding the redundant backup generators, my partner casually stated "That's nice, but one could easily toss a hand grenade over your electrified fence here and take out your generators."
That was in 1999. Doesn't take a battlefield. Sometimes weaknesses are exposed with nothing more than common sense. But it's still all risk vs. reward. (I seriously doubt that hosting facility, has invested in anti-grenade tech.)
Re: Inspired by WW2 (Score:3)
If there's a hole in the fence, a large caliber anti-materiel rifle can be fired through it. If the target isn't particularly robust to begin with, a handgun can cause enough damage to disable it.
A couple of fire crackers dressed up to look like pipe bombs, or even a few pressure cookers with some suspicious wire wrapper around them will shut down a major city for hours if placed correctly.
Mischief isn't difficult to execute. It's somewhat harder to get away with...which deters most of it. But it's very dif
Re: Inspired by WW2 (Score:2)
I cannot disable your electricity supply from my mom's basement if yout electricity supply is not connected to the internet.
You can't guard against pot shots and explosives, but you can refrain from plugging your shit into the internet. Somehow it all worked pre internet, after all.
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And that's why we call it pre internet. Pre internet cannot cope with the scale and scope of modern systems upon which modern economies depend. But surely someone as knowing as a RightwingNutCase could figure that out, yes?
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And that's why we call it pre internet. Pre internet cannot cope with the scale and scope of modern systems upon which modern economies depend
Well, critical utilities used to build their own networks, running fiber along transmission right-of-way or inside the static wires, burying it alongside pipelines, setting up microwave links, etc. Then this magic Internet thing came along that can automatically route packets to whichever backwater in which the utility might like to put a substation or pump, and the bottom-line-optimizers said "yes please!"
Thing is, they quite often DO still run fiber along with their stuff -- if you have towers or are gon
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This is generally true of most crimes. There's very little that *prevents* you from committing them other being caught, which is why people intent on committing suicide by mass shooting can't be stopped; getting taken out by police isn't a deterrence, it's an attraction.
But if you're going to do something like this, it really helps to know what you're doing. The very largest and most important substations are manned 24x7 or remotely monitored, and they're a veritable forest of equipment; you could shoot al
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The obvious solution is carbon fiber [frontiersin.org]. And it can be made conductive relatively cheaply [acs.org]. That's probably over the heads of most would-be attackers, but perfectly accessible to national security departments.
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A copper strip, unlikely to cause more than a spark unless it was a length of copper plate. if you really want to do this, use 50' of heavy chain from home depot.
Two 50' fiberglass ladders would allow troops to cross just about any electric/razorwire fence that exists. IF you only had one ladder it might take a while but would be trivial.
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A copper strip, unlikely to cause more than a spark unless it was a length of copper plate.
It wasn't copper strips that the Royal Navy used in WWII. There was a recent article on the History Guy channel on YouTube . It was called Operation Outward and was judged to be a very cost effective way of disrupting the enemy grid. Using drones would be more effective as the WWII ballons were not aimed, just released when the wind wa blowing from the UK towards Europe.
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From a drone, or did you miss that bit? Unless you are using a really big drone like the military has. But if that is the case, we have bigger problems than some yokel on Slashdot wanking on about chains.
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Re: Inspired by WW2 (Score:2)
Re: Inspired by WW2 (Score:2)
Electrified fences are easily defeated with a ground wire. Bring a large wire, short the circuit, problem solved.
99 red balloons (Score:2)
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Also inspired by the Gulf War. Mylar streamers were dumped on transmission lines causing the appearance of a short and tripping circuit breakers at substations.
Drone fear (Score:5, Informative)
trailing tether supporting a length of copper wire. If the wire had come into contact with high-voltage equipment it could have caused a short circuit, equipment failures and possibly fires.
One could cause this same sort of disruption on any of the transmission or distribution lines running overhead into and out of any outdoor above-ground substation. Even if the drone had hit its "target", the copper wire would have been obliterated by the extreme fault current it would be carrying for a split second, a breaker would trip, and then re-close itself a few seconds later in most cases. Capacitor banks might even be able to carry the load while all of that happened.
If you wanna go all Anarchist's Cookbook on the power grid, save yourself some money, forget the drones, and just get some mylar balloons.
This article is nothing but fodder for "anti-terrorism" budget building.
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So simple even a child can do it https://youtu.be/Z4zO2gB70ps [youtu.be]
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This article is nothing but fodder for "anti-terrorism" budget building.
Most likely it's probably some jackass kids doing it for hijinx to see what could happen.
When I was a kid other you'd hear reports of kids rolling up copper pipe with fireworks to make a (very dangerous) bang. You'd hear stories about kids every year blowing off hands off or something stupid, though I dont think anyone was ever killed. Guess that's why the completely banned firecrackers in Australia.
What did used to happen to me personally is have to dodge throw-downs and the cross fire of kids shooting ten
Re:Drone fear (Score:4, Insightful)
This article is nothing but fodder for "anti-terrorism" budget building.
That's not true.
It also gets a lot of ads in front of the sort of people who are afraid of everything and want an authoritarian strongman to do take action against Them, right now, before Them's murderous drones destroy suburban civilization.
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You are correct, People have been messing with HV grids for years and will continue to do so because holy shit I can make my own lightning bolts! Right now there are videos on youtube of Russians (because, of course they are) casting lengths of chain and wire over low slung 600kV feeders with the same casual indifference that one might use to hoist a grapple up a wall. The resulting plasma arc as the wire vaporises is sublime. Any excuse to clamp down on drones I suppose (and for the record, I still think
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If this was all they had it was pretty incompetently done, there'd be a brief flash as the copper vaporised and then it'd be business as usual. Find some Youtube videos of disconnectors switching to see the level of engineering you need to apply affect power distribution. If it were as simple as something like a length of copper wire, the first rainstorm to come along would destroy civilisation.
So I'm guessing it was idiots clowning around, not any real attack. Or even just an innocuous tethered drone wh
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And if you want to defend against drones, balloons and hand grenades, forget the anti-drone jammers and discover the wonderful world of chicken wire.
RC payloads (Score:3)
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The really big model aircraft are made out of aluminum. It's hard to scale up to large sizes with the materials you're talking about.
With that said, the cheapest delivery vehicle that does the job is the best. If you can deliver a shaped charge with a foamy flyer then that makes the most sense as it costs the least.
Substations just seem really vulnerable (Score:3)
I don't really know what you can do to harden a substation much.
Drones seem like the least of your worries as many more meaty physical attacks are possible from other means than drones.
Substations are generally remote and not really guarded at all.
I guess what you could do is put up a very large parameter around each one with lots and lots of cameras with redundant power and many communications options, to at least alert some central authority an attack was underway and maybe even have time to respond?
Good luck everyone!
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The solution is kind of obvious. I'm sure a lot of the substation equipment has to be cooled, which is why it's not in a larger building. So: a large net around the whole thing. Add to that even more cameras and ways to go after the pilots of those wire-drones.
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There's always something you can't defend against. You could probably do just as much damage with a well-placed rifle bullet as you could with this silly drone stunt. Or cut the incoming power line instead. It's just not enough of a concern to be that worried about - the substation is far more likely to be shut down by an unlucky squirrel. The "solution" is what we already have - tens of thousands of substations, so the errant woodland creature or crazy person is only going to turn the lights off in a small
Re: Substations just seem really vulnerable (Score:2)
Re: Substations just seem really vulnerable (Score:2)
Assuming a larger substation isn't targeted. You'd hope at larger substations they would be manned and even prepared to swap dead or destroyed equipment very fast. You'd hope...
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The solution is kind of obvious. I'm sure a lot of the substation equipment has to be cooled, which is why it's not in a larger building. So: a large net around the whole thing. Add to that even more cameras and ways to go after the pilots of those wire-drones.
Do you want DHS and TSA? Cause that's how you get DHS and TSA. Jury's still out on whether it leads to Skynet.
Re: Substations just seem really vulnerable (Score:3)
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It's pretty easy to protect against drones in most contexts. You just put up chicken wire. Since it weighs fuck-all and doesn't catch much wind worth mentioning you can easily support it with hoops. It's difficult enough to cut through that it'd be very inconvenient to do with a drone. Not impossible, but close enough for most purposes. It also would offer some protection from lofted grenades. An explosive projectile might or might not detonate on impact with it. Quite a few armored vehicles of differing so
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's pretty easy to protect against drones in most contexts. You just put up chicken wire.
Yeah but what I'm saying in my post is, drones are a minuscule threat compared to all of the other things that can easily be done to substations and cause a lot more damage.
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drones are a minuscule threat compared to all of the other things that can easily be done to substations and cause a lot more damage.
Are they? I don't think that's true at all. Drones are a lot more accessible than an anti-materiel rifle, or high explosives. They permit asymmetric warfare and are very difficult to track back to the source if used intelligently. That means a single attacker can reasonably mount multiple attacks, either over a short period or a long one. And because of their nature they have the potential to be a lot more accurate than most other types of attacks. They are the poor attacker's cruise missile.
A copper wire.. . (Score:5, Informative)
A wire that even a commercial octocopter can support would be grossly inadequate to do more than burning a fuse that is easily replaced. You would need at least a 100-lb chain to do any real damage, and that would be a stretch.
Even a grenade would be quite tricky to cause significant impact.
Re: A copper wire.. . (Score:2)
To fly these larger drones capable of hauling a heavy chain, you're supposed to have a license. (Which would make the pilot easier to find.) Then again, the enforcement of having a license is not strong.
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Then again, the enforcement of having a license is not strong.
Not just that, but if you make it autonomous then the only way to track it back to the operator is to follow the purchases. If it's built out of ubiquitous commodity parts, then that's non-trivial. What is trivial is building an autonomous drone big enough to carry a grenade, you can do it all in for under $200 (including the battery and even a charger.) One WP grenade, or an equivalent thermite charge which is easy to whip up oneself (and which would also destroy at least most of the delivery system, furth
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Chain? Wire?
How about just a standard roll of kitchen Aluminum Foil, packed with ANFO in the center? Blow it up 100' above the substation, and 10 million shards of foil come floating down onto the substation, causing more or less the entire thing to turn into a plasma ball. Sure, the upstream breakers will trip - but when they click back on, they'll find that every insulator (and, well, every conductor, and every surface) in the target substation is now coated with a thin layer of aluminum, deposited from
Re:A copper wire.. . (Score:4, Informative)
Won't work. Kitchen foil is thin and exploding it will just result in thinner slivers. Even if they were big enough to contact between phases they would literally vaporize before anything even registered as a trip.
Everything in a substation is grounded, even the fencing. Every piece of metal you see will either be at ground, or at phase voltage, separated from ground by an insulator.
If you wanted to do some damage, you would disperse carbon dust around a sbustation. The goal is to get it spread on the insulators, so that they can track current to gruond. But it wouldn't happen immediately - you'd just trip the breakers and really that's easily fixed by cleaning the insulators (which happens as part of preventative maintenance). You'd spread enough so that the insulators will break down when it rains - they'd arc and generate a lot of heat, but generally that's all that would happen - very impressive sparks and maybe a shutdown due to arc fault.
Then all they'd do is replace the insulators with a new one - a pretty common event.
Your aluminum shrapnel all over equipment doesn't do anything - if it falls on a big transformer, so what? The big bushings you see are insulators because the body of the transformer is grounded so you've just put aluminum scrap on a ground surface. The stuff that lands on the bus bars will just do nothing and probably get swept off either by cleaning or by weather.
The only way to cause problems is compromise the insulators, and that just leads to cleaning or insulator replacement.
You have to remember this gear works in harsh conditions - it's outside. It generally works through hurricanes and snow storms, dust storms and extreme heat.
Honestly, a drone probably isn't a very practical way of doing things. If you wanted to cause havoc, I suppose you could use the drone to punch a hole in the roof of the substation house there - that gear is indoors for a reason. But it's usually only controller stuff - no high voltages exist other than typical line voltage - you may have 230kV coming into the substation, but there's a potential transformer that converts it to 110V for measurement purposes so the gear inside really only has to be design to handle standard line voltage.
If you wanted to cause problems otherwise, flying a drone over some power lines you see everywhere would do about the equivalent amount of damage.
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Yup. The biggest threat to a substation is a .50 caliber at the base of an oil filled transformer causing it to overheat. It has been done before, usually not too successfully though. Most of the really big transformers are banks of four for 3-phase operation, so you would have to take out two to cause a problem.
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Kitchen foil is thin and exploding it will just result in thinner slivers. Even if they were big enough to contact between phases they would literally vaporize before anything even registered as a trip.
Then explain how metalized Mylar balloons are such a hazard to substations.
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A wire that even a commercial octocopter can support would be grossly inadequate to do more than burning a fuse that is easily replaced. You would need at least a 100-lb chain to do any real damage, and that would be a stretch.
Even a grenade would be quite tricky to cause significant impact.
If a fragile metalized Mylar balloon can knock out a substation, then so can a wire.
Stupid does stupid things (Score:3)
Re: Stupid does stupid things (Score:2)
I love how tying a wire on a drone is worded as "modifying it". As if they hid secret James Bond scary villian gadgets inside of the drone to carry out the world domination plot.
It's subtle but effective wording like this that is intended to manipulate the public's minds and make them quake in their knickers.
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Forget tbe security theater (Score:2)
There are countless attack points in the US that are just about impossible to secure but could cost hudereds or thousands of lives if a terrorist decided to carry out his attack there.
And it does not have to be a group like ISIS to make it happen. A random mentally unbalanced person, or a group of morons who throw a wire over transmission lines to make it go boom for the luls is all it takes.
Just something to think about to try to distract yourself while the big TSA goon feels up your balls