Tom Campbell

North Carolina’s most serious foreseeable threat may be cyberattacks on its power grid, water systems, ports, pipelines and supply chains. Examples include the 2022 Moore County substation attack and a 2026 cyberattack that disrupted operations at North Carolina ports. The state’s fragmented water infrastructure and vulnerable, aging power-grid transformers could make recovery from a large-scale attack difficult, while no formal national plan exists for restoring the grid after a major cyber incident. State leaders are urged to assess these risks and develop prevention and response plans before a crisis occurs.