Feds relied on 'Cold War' crisis plan in blackout

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1073862608195&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037

Jan. 11, 2004

OTTAWA (CP) - Throughout the massive summer power blackout, the
federal government relied on a master emergency plan dating from the
Cold War that was "badly in need of revision."

Newly disclosed memos reveal the musty manual, confusion about the
seriousness of the power outage and subsequent communication
breakdowns were just some of the shortcomings during the mid-August
power failure that left most of Ontario — and much of the rest of
northeastern North America — in the dark.

The internal documents are among almost 1,500 pages of records on the
blackout obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to
Information Act.

Some 50 million people in Canada and eight U.S. states were affected
by the failure that originated in Ohio on Aug. 14 and rapidly
triggered a series of power shutdowns.

Since electrical generation and distribution fall under provincial
jurisdiction, Ontario took the lead in tackling the emergency.  
However, the federal government was responsible for providing support
to the province during the crisis.

The Government Emergency Book is supposed to serve as a blueprint for
co-ordinating a federal response to calamities, but has lagged
woefully behind the times, notes a memo by an analyst with the Office
of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness,
known as OCIPEP.

"The (book) was prepared during the Cold War era to provide for civil
support to military mobilization in the event of a Soviet incursion
across the Elb River in Germany or other types of nuclear or `national
emergency' of the Cold War sort," the analyst wrote.

"It is badly in need of revision to reflect the new realities of
events that can occur in North America including cyber-attacks,
terrorism-related incidents, and cascading critical infrastructure
failures resulting from a power outage."

The analyst argued that drafting a plan to handle the crash of key
utilities "would seem to be a priority for OCIPEP as well as the
(federal government)."

OCIPEP has since been rolled into the new Public Safety and Emergency
Preparedness Department created by Prime Minster Paul Martin's
government.

Emergency agency spokesman Max London insisted in an interview that
the outdated manual did not hamper the federal response to the
blackout. But London added that he didn't disagree with the need to
update the book and said the process is under way.

Another internal OCIPEP memo recommends the agency assess the risks
posed by the aging electric infrastructure in Ontario — a move that,
if undertaken before the blackout, "may have pointed to
vulnerabilities" in the province.

The study may extend to Quebec, where the hydro infrastructure is
threatened by electromagnetic storms that strike the long power lines
running south from James Bay, the memo adds.

London, however, suggested that such work could stray beyond the
emergency agency's mandate. He indicated the operators of hydro
systems are best placed to undertake such studies.

The memos show some federal emergency personnel incorrectly assumed
the blackout, which occurred near the end of the workday, was a local
problem.

"Staff waited for about 10 minutes and began drifting out with a `see
you tomorrow wave,' " noted one employee, adding that in future "no
one should leave until the dimensions of the situation are known."

The documents also reveal it took three days for OCIPEP to get key
advice from the Natural Resources Department, the federal agency
responsible for the energy and utilities sector.

One memo laments the lack of timely information from the department on
the cause of the power interruption, the magnitude and scope of the
crisis and the likely impacts.

London played down the lack of contact between the departments.

"The early hours of any emergency are characterized by a certain level
of confusion (and) conflicting information," he said.

"We were not suffering from a lack of information."



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