Hackers in the electric grid? Meh—fear the dude with the stolen tractor

Serious electric grid vandalism remains comfortably old school—like climbing a 100-foot high-voltage transmission tower and chopping through the cables with a saw, then removing a few bolts from the bottom of the metal tower, then attaching a half-inch thick cable to the tower with a 15 inch eyebolt, and then pulling the cable across the adjacent Union Pacific railroad track "in an apparent attempt to utilize a moving train to bring down the tower."

Then this week in Jacksonville, Arkansas, someone climbed over a utility company fence to access a parked "Skytrim" tractor complete with circular saw blade on the end of its massive extendable arm. The stolen tractor, used for chopping down tree limbs, was driven through a large cattle gate, down two roads, and then off-road along the clear-cut right-of-way for high voltage transmission lines.