Incidents where threat actors targeted a country’s power grid and even caused disruptions are not unheard of, and even the United States reportedly targeted Russia’s grid in such attacks.
The U.S. government appears to be concerned that foreign adversaries could be trying to plant malicious or vulnerable equipment in the country’s power grid. That is why the latest executive order prohibits the acquisition of bulk-power system electric equipment that is designed, developed, manufactured or supplied by an entity that is “controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary.”
