Critical infrastructure systems given research money | 08.18.2005 | 10:48:25 | Views: 4787 | ID: August 18 '05: Federal officials have said more money will be given to researchers to help find better ways to update and secure the US power grid. According the Associated Press on Thursday, a new computer network is being designed following "the largest blackout in US history, which left millions of people in the Northeast and southern Canada without power in August 2003." The blackout was an accident - caused when a tree fell and broke a power line which caused a chain reaction in the piecemeal system, the AP reported. In addition to the grant money, the Department of Homeland Security is working on several programs which will focus on protecting the nation's power supply as well as other critical infrastructures. Under a Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7 (HSPD-7) the National Critical Infrastructure Protection Research and Development Plan would "address the sustained science, engineering, and technology base needed to prevent or minimize the impact of future attacks on our physical and cyber infrastructure systems," a DHS press release read. And according to researchers at the Univ. of Illinois, Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Washington State University - more energy will be focused on helping electrical companies develop controls and sensors "for the network, protocol for sharing information and technology for keeping ... information trustworthy and secure," the AP reported. Carl Landwehr, the director of the National Science Foundation's Cyber Trust program told the AP, "I believe the solutions that will be addressed will apply not only to the power grid but to the entire problem of implementing secure computer systems."
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