Ross Johnson

I see a lot of substations every year, and most of them have chain-link fences. I think chain-link fences are obsolete, but don’t take my word for it. IEEE 1402-2021, “IEEE Guide for Physical Security of Electric Power Substations,” includes the following statement: “A standard chain-link fence is easily cut, and most purposeful intruders use […]

In the previous two issues, we asked how you would know if your critical substation could survive an attack. (If you haven’t already, it might be a good idea to revisit those columns.) In this issue, we examine how the scenario is used to test the physical protection system (PPS). The Vulnerability of Integrated Security […]

It’s 2 a.m. on Christmas morning. Your physical protection system (PPS) has detected movement outside the perimeter fence of your substation. The object identification technology in the video surveillance system (VSS) has identified the movement as human in nature, so it has alerted the security operations center (SOC). The SOC operator has assessed that there […]

In the last issue of Utility Security Magazine, I mentioned a federal law that the United States has in place to combat attacks in the energy sector in my article on strategies to defeat copper theft in substations. In this article, I’m going to use the theft triangle to show how this law (and a […]

Ross Johnson Continues His Series on Substation Security with an Exploration into How to Develop a Valid Scenario that Helps You Plan to Stop Unacceptable Consequences In the previous issue, we asked how you would know if your critical substation would survive an attack. (It might be a good idea to go back and re-read […]

Will your critical substation survive an attack? How would you know? We install security systems to protect our substations. Critical sites would likely include some kind of barrier, like a fence or a wall; a video surveillance system (VSS); an access control system, combining a locking mechanism with a card reader or PIN pad; lighting; […]

The theft of copper from unmanned substations threatens public safety and the reliability of the supply of electricity. The best way to fight this is with a strategy that involves utilities, the community, vendors and other electricity sector asset owners/operators. A campaign of this scope needs executive attention and support. It is too important to […]