In a May 21 hearing on electricity reliability and security, Chairman of the House Homeland Security on Emerging Threats, Rep. James Langevin (D-RI), said that government and private sector entities responsible for ensuring the reliability of the electrical grid from blackouts and cyber-attacks are not adequately addressing the issue.
In 2007, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) responded to a staged cyber attack dubbed "Aurora". Langevin said that the response was inadequate and that "I think we could search far and wide and not find a more disorganized ineffective response to an issue of national security."
Langevin has little confidence in either FERC or NERC, following their response to the experiment. He believes the country is not ready to deal with a cyber security threat. FERC Chairman Joe Kelliher said that the commission needs more authority and resources since it is not a national security agency, and is not in the "best position to identify cyber threats." NERC President Richard Sergel said that his organization had strengthened its alert system and is trying to improve its cyber security tools. Langevin challenged the witnesses to prove that they are serious about cyber security by demonstrating a willingness to adopt better standards to make the grid more secure.