WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is urging more public-private cooperation on cyber defenses, and she says U.S. adversaries already are capable of using cyber intrusions to shut down the power grid. She says, “I think that there are very malign actors who are trying.” Granholm is even speaking in favor of having a law that would ban paying ransomware. A major pipeline company was hit in May with a crippling cyberattack by a ransomware group. Colonial Pipeline temporarily shut down its gasoline distribution networks in the South before paying $4.4 million to the hackers.
