Electric grid hacking exercise puts spotlight on shortage of security clearances - Cyberscoop

Electric grid hacking exercise puts spotlight on shortage of security clearances - Cyberscoop: As foreign hackers continue to probe the U.S. grid for weaknesses, a cyber exercise for the North American energy sector has shown that many utility personnel still lack access to the classified information needed to stay on top of the threat. Not enough utility employees had the clearances needed to share threat information for a serious cyberattack scenario rehearsed during the exercise, according to a report published Friday by regulator North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC). “Government should plan to quickly declassify information that utilities need to prevent or respond to attacks,” the report states. During the two-day exercise, which took place in November, government officials and utility executives worked together to respond to simulated “cyber and physical attacks” against control systems and generation and transmission facilities “that caused widespread and prolonged power outages,” the report notes. Energy industry officials have long urged the U.S. government to expedite the clearance …

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