According to a recent webcast by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), there's a concerning trend of increasing vulnerability to cyberattacks within the U.S. power grids. The number of potential weak points in both virtual and physical infrastructure is rising, with approximately 60 new susceptibilities identified each day. NERC executives noted that these vulnerabilities, which are areas in software or hardware prone to exploitation by cyber criminals, expanded from 21,000-22,000 at the close of 2022 to a range of 23,000-24,000 last year.

Manny Cancel, NERC's senior vice president, highlighted the difficulty in keeping up with addressing these vulnerabilities, indicating the immense challenge faced by regulatory bodies and energy providers alike.

The geopolitical landscape, marked by events like Russia's invasion of Ukraine and conflicts such as the war in Gaza, has significantly amplified the cyber threats facing North American power grids. NERC underscored that threats also emanate from other nations like China, with concerns mounting regarding potential interference during the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

In addition to cyber threats, physical assaults on the grid have also remained prevalent. NERC reported around 2,800 incidents of gunfire, vandalism, and other attacks on electrical infrastructure last year, continuing the upward trend observed since 2022. Alarmingly, approximately 3% of these attacks resulted in outages or operational disruptions.