A presidential advisory council found that existing national plans, response resources, and coordination strategies would be outmatched by a catastrophic power outage. The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), made up of executives from both the public and private sector, advised that this requires a new national focus on the risk. The council’s report, released this month, found that a cyberattack timed to coincide with a natural disaster could be especially critical to public health, safety, and national and economic security. NIAC recommended designing a national approach to prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic power outages that would provide Federal guidance, resources, and incentives needed to take action across all levels of government and industry. Additionally, the report suggesting improving the understanding of how cascading failures across critical infrastructure would affect restoration and survival.
