The University of Illinois will use a multimillion-dollar federal grant to study the nation's electric grid and devise ways to respond to a potential attack. The $18.7 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will let researchers create conditions that mimic a real electric grid. They then will test new technology and cybersecurity tools.
Tim Yardley is principal investigator and associate director for technology at the Information Trust Institute. He says the study will allow for a "generational step forward" in ensuring that methods being developed to answer an attack on the grid are reliable.
Models of the grid will simulate both normal conditions and those in which it's under attack while examining physical and cyber approaches.
