BALTIMORE — A Catonsville woman and a man from Florida are facing serious charges after an alleged plot to sabotage Baltimore's electrical grid.
MORE: Catonsville woman allegedly plotted to shoot up several Baltimore area energy facilities
Sarah Beth Clendaniel appeared in court Monday, is still in custody, and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
"The accused were not just talking, but taking steps to fulfill their threats, and further their extremist goals," said Thomas Sobocinski, an FBI Special Agent with the Baltimore Field Office.
A local expert tells WMAR losing power is one of the most pressing security concerns facing American infrastructure.
"The power grid is a huge vulnerability," said Rick Forno, Assistant Director for the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, and an expert in electrical engineering and computer science. "So much of our modern way of life and business is dependent on it.”
Like a major weather event, Forno describes, a potential outage would devastate homes, heating, local business, hospitals and 911 centers.
Forno says if an attack like this happened, it would take a lot of work to build things back, as parts required to get the infrastructure up-and-running are not always readily available.
"These are often times industrial-grade devices that are custom-ordered, and you don’t just have them sitting around in a warehouse," said Forno. "They’re expensive, they’re large, and they’re usually ordered and delivered on-demand.”
“It's very difficult to secure infrastructures like this, that are designed to be long lasting, and we’ve built our modern economy on top of," Forno added.
