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Oak Ridge lab, EPB team up to make power grid less vulnerable to cyberattacks

Staff photo by Mike Pare / Stacey Prowell, ORNL's chief cybersecurity research scientist, talks to some of a Chattanooga delegation that visited the lab last week. He briefed them about DarkNet, an initiative in which EPB is helping to remove the nation's power grid from the public internet.
Staff photo by Mike Pare / Stacey Prowell, ORNL's chief cybersecurity research scientist, talks to some of a Chattanooga delegation that visited the lab last week. He briefed them about DarkNet, an initiative in which EPB is helping to remove the nation's power grid from the public internet. Staff photo by Mike Pare / Stacey Prowell, ORNL's chief cybersecurity research scientist, talks to some of a Chattanooga delegation that visited the lab last week. He briefed them about DarkNet, an initiative in which EPB is helping to remove the nation's power grid from the public internet.

By Mike Pare 5 min read

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – It’s a project mysteriously called “DarkNet.”

The aim by Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists is to get the nation’s power grid off the public internet and make it less vulnerable to cyberattacks, and it’s an effort in which EPB in Chattanooga is lending a hand.

The DarkNet collaboration is cited by Chattanooga and ORNL officials as one example of how linkups are growing between the world-class lab and the Scenic City.

Back to Chattanooga

The Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit will return to Chattanooga in May 2019. Darrell Akins, executive manager of the Tennessee Valley Corridor headquartered in Oak Ridge, said the summit will be held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga next year. The group supports the federal science and technology missions in the Tennessee Valley with a board of directors representing a five-state region and 11 congressional districts from North Alabama to Southwest Virginia.

photo Staff photo by Mike Pare / Jack C. Wells, left, director of science at ORNL’s National Center for Computational Sciences, talks to members of a Chattanooga delegation. Behind them is part of a new supercomputer being built called Summit, which may be the world’s fastest when it comes online.

Bout Oak Ridge National Laboratory

› Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest Department of Energy science and energy lab.› Set up in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project› Focus in four major areas — neutrons, computing, materials, nuclear› Lab sits on 4,421 acres and has 196 buildings› Staff includes about 4,500 including scientists and engineers› Budget: $1.6 billionSource: ORNL