“Officials in charge of the reliability of the U.S. electric grid are taking a closer look at how to respond to cyberattacks and other possible catastrophic events.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp., or NERC, and the U.S. Department of Energy in a report to be released Wednesday call for a range of steps– from increasing communication to ensuring the supply of transformers and other equipment–to mitigate what they described as a ‘high-impact, low- frequency’ event on the nation’s power system.

The report looked at a cyberattack, a pandemic and the detonation of a nuclear bomb at high altitudes among other possibilities. The catastrophic events the report examines aren’t necessarily the most probable, yet officials say cyberthreats are being detected currently on the nation’s grid.”

(Source: US Officials Look At How To Respond To Threats To Electric Grid.)