Re: DOE Releases Interim Report on Blackouts/Power Outages, Focus on Cyber Security

[Charley Hamilton <chamilto@uci.edu>]

Geoff -

One of the reasons the report is long but not conclusive about
many issues is that it is report 1 of 2.  The goal is to put out what 
information is currently available and the preliminary conclusions,
then invite public comment and suggestions about additional
research/forensic avenues.

Take a look back at Chapter 4 of the report.  They go into
fair detail about the immediate causes of the cascade, and
indicate that there is no indication that this was a result
of sabotage.  Trust me, from the people I have talked to,
malice has not been completely ruled out.  It simply does
not appear to have been a necessary component.   Therefore, it
is strongly discounted.

I'm looking forward to finishing my review of the report and
seeing part 2 as it develops.  Looks like there is some good
network reliability research to be done in this arena.

Charley

--
Charles Hamilton, PhD EIT               Faculty Fellow
Department of Civil and                 Phone: 949.824.3752
    Environmental Engineering           FAX:   949.824.2117
University of California, Irvine        Email: chamilto@uci.edu