Phone: 1-833-308-5155 • avtecinc.com/utilities 100 Innovation Place • Lexington SC 29072 USA Cyberready: Protecting Mission-Critical Utility Communications It’s a date those in the energy sector know well: August 14, 2003. On that day, more than 50 million people in eight states and portions of Canada lost power when a high-voltage line in Ohio softened, sagged, and brushed against some trees. The fault, combined with a cascading series of technical issues, caused the largest blackout in North American history. In just a little over an hour, more than 508 generating units at 265 power plants shut down. 1 Telephone and cellular systems became overloaded. Traffic was reduced to gridlock because signals weren’t operating. Hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded in subway

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