Customer Reviews

Securing Utility and Energy Infrastructures

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Larry Ness, PhD discusses at a high-level the scenarios and potential outcomes of attacks that could be committed by terrorists or malicious individuals against our nation's energy/utility infrastructures. Many of the scenarios and vulnerabilities mentioned in the book are examples I had already heard on the news or read in the newspaper. I enjoyed reading chapter 7 regarding cyber-security and security technology. The book is 340 pages long, but the last 150 pages are appendices.

The good: Ness digests a variety of actual and potential infrastructure, economic, and safety problems associated with the disruption of the electricity grid. For the reader who knows little about electric power or terrorism, this will introduce some useful information, such as the circumstances that cause blackouts, and the importance and vulnerability of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems.
The bad: The author presents terrorism as a subset of Islam, describing the recent history of terrorist activities affecting the US. He makes no mention of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, the FBI's Operation Backfire (an ongoing program aimed at eco-terrorism) nor any other form of terrorism.
The book periodically reads like something recycled from a consulting firm's marketing literature and high level presentations. Other portions of the book seem rushed with respect to grammar and style. Rather than a broad survey, the book dwells on a few aspects of the subject, though without a detailed treatment of anything.
The list price of around $85 is extremely high for such a short book, especially considering the fact that more than a third of it is appendices. If you must buy it, find a used copy.
The ugly: Most of the photos in the book not only do little to support or expand the authors points, but are useless or non-sequitur to the point of being funny. For example, one grainy black and white photo of a man's face is labeled "Computer hacker" (no hacker or incident in particular, just some guy), while another photo of a camera mounted to a wall is tagged "Security camera". Most readers are likely familiar with both without the benefit of pictures.