AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As Energy Secretary Rick Perry tallied the successes of the Department of Energy, he also painted an ominous picture of attempts to hack the country’s energy grid.
At the Resurgent Gathering, a series of weekend panel discussions focusing on promoting conservative ideologies and the relationships between local, state, and federal politics, Perry said his agency faces attacks that pose new challenges.
“We’ve got a great demand on our grid,” Perry said. “And you’ve got this element of nefarious actors, whether it’s state governments, terrorist groups, with the potential to shut down our electric grid.”
“We take it very seriously and the challenges are real,” Perry said in an interview with this reporter.
“Control panels and power stations get pinged literally millions of times a day by folks trying to get in,” he continued, explaining that puts the agency on the defensive.
Perry recently participated in a cybersecurity summit in New York with top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, including Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. At the summit, they talked about stronger coordination to prevent future attempts to target the nation’s infrastructure.
In addition to focusing on building resiliency and stability in our grid, he highlighted the need to keep fuel sources robust in Texas and across the country.
“Coal, nuclear, wind, solar, natural gas, hydro,” Perry said. “We need to have all of those being healthy out there for the national security of this country.”
