DHS' top counterintelligence official, Kenneth Wainstein, says the department is watching for domestic violent extremists trying to engineer societal collapse.
On the heels of a string of high-profile attempted attacks at power substations, the top intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security remains"very concerned" about copycat attacks on the U.S. energy grid, driven by white nationalist narratives online.
"The vision, in short, is that they want to take down the energy grid because if they take down the energy grid, they believe that society will then collapse," Wainstein said."And out of the collapse, [they believe], will arise a white nationalist government to replace the current government. And we've seen this narrative online among these white nationalist groups."
An FBI intelligence report published last month and reviewed by CBS News confirms nearly two dozen crimes related to the power grid — including arson, shootings and tampering with equipment — remain under investigation. The report indicates that in these cases, investigators have not been able to determine the motive or whether there was any criminal coordination.
In December, federal energy regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered a 120-day study to evaluate whether current standards preventing physical security threats at U.S. power stations should be raised in the wake of recent incidents.
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