Critical Infrastructure, Cyberterrorism, and Energy Security, Essay Example

While the issues of security and vulnerability of critical infrastructures have long been of significant concern, such concerns have been heightened immeasurably in the post-9/11 era, and the possibility of terrorist attacks on power plants and other components of the energy sector have shaped the scope and direction of vulnerability assessments. Contemporary systems are vulnerable in a number of ways, including physical terrorist attacks on power plants or other elements of infrastructure; cybersecurity attacks on SCADA/EMS systems; electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks designed to damage power grids and other systems; and seismic, weather-related, or other natural events. The deregulation of the energy industry has made systems more open and interconnected, therefore increasing the chances that such systems may be compromised. SCADA systems that were originally developed and implemented with functionality as the greatest priority have proven vulnerable to attack, and as connectivity between different components of energy infrastructure increasingly relies on the Internet, security vulnerabilities in both hardware and software grow exponentially. In a town containing an electric power plant, a natural gas works, and an oil refinery, the security and vulnerability of these facilities is of significant concern. Unfortunately, costs and budgets dictate the scope of any vulnerability assessment, making it necessary to prioritize which areas should receive the greatest attention.

If the budget for this security assessment is significantly limited, the best recommendation for the security consultant would be to focus on the SCADA systems of the town’s electric power plant, while also devoting whatever time is available to the security vulnerabilities of the natural gas works and the oil refinery. Because budgets and costs are an issue, the primary concern is how to determine which areas are most critical, and which areas are mostly or entirely the purview of the town government. All three of these facilities will be subject to oversight by a number of regulatory and other agencies, at both the state and local levels; assessments of vulnerabilities will be conducted by various groups and individuals. Predicated on the assumption that the town is entirely dependent on the power plant for its electricity needs and on the assumption that the refinery and the natural gas facility are beholden to a boarder range of stakeholders, the town should focus on the physical and cybersecurity of the power plant.  A limited assessment could involve a review of the physical connections and access points of the plant’s SCADA network; a review of current software for vulnerabilities and security-feature implementation; a review of all software and hardware vendors; and reviews and updates for managers, IT, and other system users.

Practically, the human-machine interface that laces the overall operation and application of SCADA in actual instances of imposing protection and security to the current general systems used to determine social development and directive conditions of advancement in the society. There are currently three basic units that make up the SCADA system which involves the utilization of human-machine interface. One of which is the remote terminal unites or the RTUs that makes it possible for sensor data to be transmitted into digital data that could directly be interpreted by the system, thus knowing what to do when intruders are aiming to hack the system. Another unit are the Programmable Logic Controllers or the PLCs, which are characterized by much more sophisticated transmitters that allow a functionality of controlling hardware connected to the network even from a distant location. Meanwhile the HMI or the human-machine interface is the section of the operation that directly involves human input. Through human operators, monitoring the situation becomes easier to handle and to prove especially when anomalies occur into the system.

A present, one of the most important sectors in the society being protected by SCADA is the electric resource of the community. It is noted that when it comes to protecting electrical resources, it allows the overall function of the community. Once such system is hacked by anomalous users through the network used to manage the said resources, it is expected that the overall function of the community could be jeopardized. Hence, extensive applications are implemented to protect energy resources of the community through the SCADA program.

In the decades since the end of World War II the global economy has become increasingly interdependent, and oil has been the fuel for the development of the manufacturing- and transportation-based economic systems underpinning this globalization. The oil-producing nations of the Middle East have provided a significant percentage of the world’s oil, and price shocks such as those seen in the early 1970s, the late 1980s, and the mid-2000s have demonstrated the serious effects that rising oil prices have on the global economy (IEA, 2014). Over the past decade the rate of oil production in the U.S. has grown significantly, though this growth has not mitigated the nation’s reliance on imported oil (GAO, 1996; Brown &Yucel, 2013). Demand for oil has grown exponentially in China, India, and other regions in the developing world, placing increasing pressure on limited oil production and leading to an ever-tightening oil market. While the U.S. should prioritize efforts to decrease dependence on imported oil, a disruption of oil from the Middle East would have serious consequences for the nation and the entire global economy. In a scenario wherein Iran closed the Straits of Hormuz to block oil shipments the U.S. would be forced to quickly take action to keep oil flowing both for its domestic needs and for the stability of the global economy.

The implications of an Iranian blockade of the Straits of Hormuz must be considered both in the short and long term. The U.S. relies on oil for approximately 40% of its total energy needs, a figure that has remained fairly steady for the past six decades (Congressional Research Service, 2012). While the disruptions in the supply of oil from the Middle East have led to domestic and international downturns in price and availability of oil, demand continues to grow. In response to concerns over the availability of imported oil, the U.S. and other nations have developed other energy technologies, including wind, solar, and hydroelectric power. While such technologies have shown promise, none have yet grown to compete with oil, natural gas, and coal in terms of U.S. energy supplies. Despite the steady reliance on oil, the U.S. currently gets less than 10% of its imported oil from Middle Eastern sources, while China, Japan, and South Korea are becoming increasingly dependent on oil from Iran and other Middle Eastern nations (Clawson & Henderson). An Iranian blockade would have serious and significant short-term implications for the U.S. and the world, but in the long term there are a number of means by which the most serious consequences could be mitigated on national and international levels.

Approximately 17 million barrels of oil flow through the straits of Hormuz each day, which translates to roughly 30% of the world’s total oil needs (eia.gov, 2014). Despite the decreasing dependence on Middle Eastern oil in the U.S., any downward pressure on the world supply would have a significant impact on prices and availability. As such the first response from the U.S. to an Iranian blockade should be to release oil from its own strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), which currently stand at 750 million barrels (spr.doe.gov, 2014). These reserves cannot, of themselves, offset the disruption caused by the Iranian blockade; at 17 million barrels a day, the U.S. SPR would be depleted in a matter of weeks. The use of the SPR provides only a partial means by which the disruption can be offset.

The U.S. has a number of administrative measures at its disposal, including the rapid implementation of carpool lanes and mandating shorter workweeks of longer days. According to estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA), such measures could save over 1 million barrels of oil per day in the U.S., while the adoption of telecommuting could further drive down demand for and use of oil. On an international level, it is possible that other oil producing nations could increase production levels to offset the Iranian blockade, while Middle Eastern nations that typically ship their oil through the Straits of Hormuz could divert at least some of those shipments to overland transport via rail and pipelines (eia.gov). In the short term, such measures could serve to mitigate much of the damage done by an Iranian blockade.

The long-term consequences of an Iranian blockade are less clear; if the disruption threatens to go on indefinitely, it will be necessary to sharply decrease oil consumption while also implementing new means of transport for oil and turning to alternative sources of energy. A broad analysis of the geopolitical implications of a semi-permanent disruption of oil through the Straits of Hormuz is beyond the scope of this discussion; such a disruption would have an enormous impact on the economic and political stability of the region and the world. It may even be unlikely that Iran would follow through with such a blockade, as its economy is largely dependent on oil exports. If Iran did make such a move, however, the U.S. has enough oil in its SPR to blunt the worst effects as well as a number of domestic and transnational policies and procedures in place to help shift production and supply to other sources. Such a move by the Iranians could, in fact, provide the economic and political impetus for the U.S. government to make energy independence a national priority.

Utilizing the current pipes available, it is important to instantiate a distinct indication of protection. Centralization of management of release of oil resources for distribution should be given specific attention to. It is important to take note of the fact that when it comes to energy resources, national interest increases evidently hence making the distribution highly complex Notably, with the need to protect such operation of storage and distribution of energy resource, the ones given the authority to manage everything regarding the matter need to be screened properly; understandably, it could be realized that it is with this option that the nation would be able to protect their assets especially when it comes to making sure that their energy resources are kept and distributed accordingly.

Along with these procedures of protection and management of resources, it is also important to explore different options of finding and developing alternative resources especially that the current energy resources the country protects are becoming rarely available and are hard to reproduce. With the procedures of research dedicated to such exploration on alternative energy, it is expected that increasing earnings of the nation and making it easier for the country to retain the position they have in the international market as the pioneer provider of enery resource.

References

Brown, S., &Yucel, M. (2013). The Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom: U.S. States’  Economic Gains and Vulnerabilities. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 25 June 2014, from http://www.cfr.org/united-states/shale-gas-tight-oil-boom-us-states-economic-gains-vulnerabilities/p31568

Clawson, P., & Henderson, S. (2005). Reducing Vulnerability to Middle East Energy Shocks. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved 25 June 2014, from

Congressional Research Service,. (2014). U.S. Energy: Overview and Key Statistics. Washington, DC.

Eia.gov,. (2014). Countries – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Retrieved 25 June 2014, from http://www.eia.gov/countries/index.cfm?view=production

Iea.org,. (2014). IEA – International Energy Agency – affordable clean energy for all | iea.org. Retrieved 25 June 2014, from http://www.iea.org/

Spr.doe.gov,. (2014). US Department of Energy – Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Retrieved 25 June 2014, from http://www.spr.doe.gov/

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO),. (1996). Evaluating U.S. Vulnerability to Oil Supply Disruptions and Options for Mitigating Their Effects. Washington, DC: GAO.