What I'm Reading 5/11/2020 - Was Trump Bulk Power Executive Order a Response to a Chinese Attack on the US Grid? And, Jerry Stiller Died. RIP

Unfettered Blog - Emergency Executive Order 13920 – Response to a real nation-state cyberattack against the US grid -

So why the EO now? Government and public utility procurement rules often push organizations into buying equipment due to price and without regard to origin or risk. In this case, it resulted in a utility having to procure a very large bulk transmission transformer from China. When the Chinese transformer was delivered to a US utility, the site acceptance testing identified electronics that should NOT have been part of the transformer – hardware backdoors. 

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What the Chinese did was install hardware backdoors that can cause an Aurora or other type of damaging event at a time of their choosing. This is why the list of equipment in the EO is so exhaustive. 

I did some searching and can't find any corroboration of this incident.  That doesn't mean it didn't happen, my google-fu could be weak this morning, but accept this as a data point not a call to panic.

CNN - Actor and comedian Jerry Stiller has died of natural causes, Ben Stiller says -

This sucks!  Serenity Now!!!

Wired - Thunderbolt Flaws Expose Millions of PCs to Hands-On Hacking -

On Sunday, Eindhoven University of Technology researcher Björn Ruytenberg revealed the details of a new attack method he's calling Thunderspy. On Thunderbolt-enabled Windows or Linux PCs manufactured before 2019, his technique can bypass the login screen of a sleeping or locked computer—and even its hard disk encryption—to gain full access to the computer's data. And while his attack in many cases requires opening a target laptop's case with a screwdriver, it leaves no trace of intrusion and can be pulled off in just a few minutes. That opens a new avenue to what the security industry calls an "evil maid attack," the threat of any hacker who can get alone time with a computer in, say, a hotel room. Ruytenberg says there's no easy software fix, only disabling the Thunderbolt port altogether.

 ZDNet - Trump administration holds talks with Intel, TSMC to bring chip tech back to US shores -

The talks have been prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted how the United States relies on the global supply chain -- and in particular, suppliers based in the Asian region -- for the processor technology required by modern electronics. 

Intel already has a substantial presence in the United States, with campuses spread out across areas including Santa Clara, San Jose, and New York. The tech giant also has numerous fab production sites in the country, alongside one testing facility and one assembly development facility. Other sites are spread out across China, Malaysia, and Vietnam, among other countries.