A humorous website, Cyber Squirrel 1, provides a map of all known
"cyber squirrel operations" that have disrupted the
electricity grid since 1987. According to Cyber
Squirrel 1, there have been more than 623 successful
"cyber war ops" by squirrels. Of particular interest to
those living in Southern Ontario, there have been 52 successful
"cyber war ops" by raccoons. The site notes that there
have been many more "successful executed ops" that have
not been reported (and that remain classified).
The premise of Cyber Squirrel 1 is that the electricity grid
is much more susceptible to interruption and disruption from
animals (squirrels, birds, raccoons, snakes, rats and beavers are
listed) than from "nation state operations." The
implication is that far too much attention is being paid to risk of
an unlikely outside "attack" and not enough attention is
being paid to protecting electricity systems from common,
predictable disruptions.
