President Trump signed an executive order intended to limit the use of foreign-supplied components for the United States electrical grid, reports The Wall Street Journal. Senior intelligence officials fear that adversaries like Russia and China have secured footholds in the American electric grid, allowing them to cause blackouts in the future.
The order gives the federal government oversight over private utility purchases of gear, and creates the nation’s first federally controlled process for rooting out compromised gear that already is embedded in electric networks. The order will also give Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette the ability to help retool the nation’s electric grid defenses.
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