BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Moore County, North Carolina is nearly 700 miles from Buffalo, N.Y., but the targeted attack on two power substations there, is having reverberations here and around the country.
Over 40,000 electricity users in Moore County, were without power for several days after one or more people shot-up the power grid, disabling the equipment.
"It's something that we discussed in Homeland Security for years as one of the many possible scenarios in which it would take very few people to coordinate a very serious attack," said Dr. Steven MacMartin, Visiting Program Director for the Cybersecurity program at Hilbert College and former Homeland Security official.
MacMartin, on WBEN Wednesday, said he personally does not believe this was a case of terrorism, but said this attack shows the threat that the nation's infrastructure is under.
"There is so much infrastructure to consider. Railways, bridges, highways, border crossings, the water system and the power system. To think we can physically defend it, or protect it, is probably not going to work. And I think it's going to require more intelligence on the part of law enforcement and the community to gauge what threats are out there," said MacMartin.
Utility infrastructure in the U.S. is only guarded to a small extent, according to MacMartin, not to the level it needs to be if there are coordinated attacks against it.
"If this incident was more of an attempt by someone to see what they can do, then we could be in real trouble if they decide to hit before a coordinated defense is put together."
Vandalism or Terrorism
Where is the line in this incident between vandalism and terrorism?
"People are too quick to assign the word terrorism to things," added MacMartin. "There is a clear delineation. If this was kids shooting rifles, because they thought it was fun, it's vandalism. If there was an attempt to
disrupt activity, it becomes an act of criminal vandalism. But when there is a religious, ideological, or political reason, coupled with the desire to instill fear in a general population, that's terrorism."
This, MacMartin said, is a long way from that. Even if the intent was to bring down the electric grid, there was no real intent to create a fear in the population.
He said the longer this goes on, and the more attention this receives, somebody is going to say something. "The information is going to get to authorities and they'll discover who did this. If it were something more nefarious, it may take longer but they'll eventually find out what happened."