The Department of Homeland Security issued an alert Monday warning about the risk domestic violent extremists pose to the nation’s power grid, the Daily Beast reports. Power companies had pushed national security officials to recognize the risk after they experienced an increased number of threats in 2020 and 2021.
“DVEs have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors,” the alert said. One case cited was last year, when four people with ties to a white nationalist group used assault-style weapons in attempt to make a substation explode.
Surveillance of websites frequented by various subsets of groups found a lot of chatter about the best ways to disable parts of the power grid, with some promoting “lone wolf” attacks instead of a coordinated effort.