The Grid Security Ecosystem: Organizations Working to Protect American Infrastructure

The Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience works alongside a community of organizations that have spent years — in some cases decades — addressing the threats to America’s critical infrastructure. Each brings different expertise, different focus areas, and different capabilities. Together, they represent the most comprehensive body of work on grid security and infrastructure resilience in the world.

FIR’s specific contribution to this ecosystem is the community-level resilience framework: the Fresh Start Initiative assessments, the Bronze-through-Diamond Blue certification pathway, and the 16-sector cascade model that connects grid-level threats to municipal, military, and household readiness. The organizations listed below address other essential parts of the problem — from federal regulation to utility restoration planning to congressional advocacy.

EIS Council (Electric Infrastructure Security Council)

Website: eiscouncil.org Leadership: Avi Schnurr (CEO and President), Chris Beck (Chief Scientist and VP for Policy)

The EIS Council is the leading international organization focused on Black Sky hazard resilience for electric utilities and other critical infrastructure sectors. Avi Schnurr, a former Northrop Grumman systems engineer with multiple patents in laser and optical systems, founded the Council to bridge resilience gaps for hazards at all scales using a systematic, systems engineering approach.

The EIS Council’s signature initiative is EARTH EX (Emergency All-Sector Response Transnational Hazard Exercise) — the largest cross-sector, cross-continent Black Sky resilience exercise in history, with over 20,000 participants across multiple iterations. EARTH EX scenarios address cyber attack, EMP, extreme weather, and cascading infrastructure failure across all 16 critical infrastructure sectors.

The Council also publishes the EPRO Handbooks (Electric Power Restoration Organization), including the landmark Blackstart: Power Restoration for a Greener Grid — the definitive guide to restoring power after a widespread outage in an evolving grid environment. EIS Council has conducted EMP vulnerability and protection research for power grid facilities in partnership with the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

The EIS Council coined the term “Black Sky event” as it is used in the infrastructure resilience community — a catastrophic event that severely disrupts the normal functioning of critical infrastructures in multiple regions for long durations. FIR uses this term throughout its framework and credits EIS Council as its originator.

Relationship to FIR: FIR’s framework addresses the community-level response to the Black Sky scenarios that EIS Council models at the utility and national level. Where EIS Council focuses on utility restoration planning and cross-sector exercises, FIR focuses on what municipalities, military installations, and households must build before the event to survive the gap between grid failure and grid restoration.

Foundation for Resilient Societies

Website: resilientsocieties.org Leadership: Thomas S. Popik (Chairman and President), Mary D. Lasky (Secretary and Director), Dr. Richard M. Krieg (Director)

The Foundation for Resilient Societies is dedicated to cost-effective protection of technologically advanced societies from infrequently occurring natural and man-made disasters. Founded in 2012 by Thomas Popik and William Mott, the organization focuses on four primary threats: solar storms (GMD), electromagnetic pulse (EMP), physical attack, and cybersecurity.

Resilient Societies is distinguished by its regulatory advocacy. Tom Popik — an MIT-trained mechanical engineer and Harvard Business School MBA — has appeared before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Canadian Parliament, and multiple U.S. state legislatures. His work has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico, The Economist, and Reuters. In 2017, Resilient Societies filed the first-ever citizen petition to FERC for improved grid cybersecurity reporting standards — resulting in FERC ordering expanded breach reporting requirements in 2018.

The Foundation also conducts research quantifying risks and estimating costs and benefits of grid protection solutions. Its published work includes analysis of EMP protection for utility communications, grid reliability standards, and comparative risk assessment for critical infrastructure threats. Resilient Societies engages with the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, governors, state public utility commissions, and the White House.

Relationship to FIR: Mary D. Lasky serves as both Executive Vice President at the Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience and as Secretary and Director at the Foundation for Resilient Societies. Ms. Lasky is also a member of the InfraGard National Member Alliance Board and Program Manager for Business Continuity Planning at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She is lead editor and an author of Powering Through: From Fragile Infrastructure to Community Resilience. This cross-organizational leadership reflects a shared mission: Resilient Societies focuses on federal regulatory and policy advocacy; FIR focuses on community-level implementation and certification.

Secure the Grid Coalition

Website: securethegrid.com Key contributors: Lt. Col. Tommy Waller (USMC, Ret.), Michael Mabee, Dr. Peter Pry (1955–2022)

The Secure the Grid Coalition is a public advocacy organization focused on raising awareness of grid vulnerability and advocating for legislative action to harden the American power grid against EMP, GMD, cyber, and physical attack. The coalition brings together national security professionals, military veterans, policy advocates, and concerned citizens.

Tommy Waller, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, is the coalition’s most visible spokesperson and appears in the Grid Down, Power Up documentary. Michael Mabee, a U.S. Army veteran and author of The Civil Defense Book, has been instrumental in tracking NERC reliability standards and holding FERC accountable for grid security enforcement. The late Dr. Peter Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Commission staff and authored multiple books on EMP threat assessment, was a foundational voice in the coalition until his passing in 2022.

Relationship to FIR: The Secure the Grid Coalition focuses on national-level advocacy — congressional education, media engagement, and public awareness. FIR focuses on the community-level implementation that translates legislative and regulatory progress into municipal, military, and household readiness. FIR’s Policy and Advocacy work complements the coalition’s efforts with FERC comment letters, the proposed BSE Executive Order, and coordination with CISA and DOE.

InfraGard and the InfraGard EMP-SIG

Website: infragard.org

InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and members of the private sector dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States. Organized into local chapters (InfraGard Member Alliances) across all FBI field office territories, InfraGard connects critical infrastructure owners and operators, law enforcement, and security professionals.

The InfraGard EMP Special Interest Group (EMP-SIG) is a cross-sector working group within InfraGard focused specifically on electromagnetic pulse and geomagnetic disturbance threats to critical infrastructure. The EMP-SIG has been a primary venue for information sharing, research coordination, and professional networking among EMP security professionals.

Relationship to FIR: FIR’s President, Steve Volandt, received the 2023 FBI-InfraGard Cross-Sector Council Leadership Award — recognizing contributions to critical infrastructure protection across multiple sectors. FIR’s work grew directly from InfraGard EMP-SIG involvement into the full national security nonprofit it is today. FIR maintains active engagement with InfraGard chapters and the EMP-SIG.

Center for Security Policy

Website: centerforsecuritypolicy.org Founder: Frank Gaffney

The Center for Security Policy is a national security think tank that has been a consistent voice on EMP and grid security threats. Frank Gaffney, the Center’s founder and a former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, has hosted extensive coverage of grid vulnerability on Secure Freedom Radio (now Securing America TV), interviewing Tom Popik, Tommy Waller, Dr. Peter Pry, and other grid security experts.

The Center has published multiple reports on EMP threats and advocated for Space-Based Missile Defense and grid hardening legislation. Its Secure the Grid media coverage has contributed significantly to public awareness of infrastructure vulnerability.

Relationship to FIR: FIR’s threat assessment volumes address the same threat landscape the Center has covered for years — with FIR’s specific contribution being the community-level cascade model and the Four-Party Ecosystem framework that integrates the Center’s national security perspective into municipal readiness planning.

Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy

Website: journalofcriticalinfrastructurepolicy.com Founding Editor: Dr. Richard M. Krieg

The Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy is a peer-reviewed academic journal based in Washington, DC, providing a cross-sectoral platform for critical infrastructure and community resilience research. Dr. Krieg, who also serves as a Director at the Foundation for Resilient Societies, brings extensive background in public health policy and philanthropy to the journal’s editorial mission.

Published work in the Journal includes Thomas Popik’s analysis of the 2021 Texas blackouts and research on grid reliability, cybersecurity reporting, and resilience policy. The Journal provides the academic rigor and peer review that validates the technical claims made by advocacy organizations in the grid security community.

Relationship to FIR: The Journal represents the academic and research dimension of the grid security ecosystem. FIR’s framework — including the six-tier dependency model, the eight assessment categories, and the Diamond Blue certification criteria — is informed by the research published in venues like this Journal and the EMP Commission reports.

The Congressional EMP Commission (Historical)

Key figures: Dr. William R. Graham (Chairman), Dr. George Baker, Curtis Birnbach

The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack operated from 2001 through 2017 under Congressional mandate. Chaired by Dr. William R. Graham — former Science Advisor to President Reagan and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy — the Commission produced the foundational technical assessments of EMP vulnerability that underpin virtually all subsequent work in this field.

The Commission’s reports documented the cascading effects of EMP on all 16 critical infrastructure sectors and estimated that a nationwide long-duration grid failure could result in the death of up to 90 percent of the American population within the first year — a figure that William Forstchen used as the basis for One Second After and that the Grid Down, Power Up documentary cites prominently.

Dr. George Baker, a Commission member and EMP effects researcher, and Curtis Birnbach, a technical contributor specializing in EMP protection for utility communications, continue to advise organizations across the grid security ecosystem.

Relationship to FIR: The EMP Commission’s findings are foundational to FIR’s entire framework. FIR’s Black Sky Event definition, cascade timeline, and sector-by-sector failure analysis draw directly on the Commission’s published research. FIR extends the Commission’s work by translating its technical findings into an actionable, certifiable community readiness framework.

How FIR Complements This Ecosystem

Every organization listed above addresses a critical part of the grid security problem:

EIS Council models the Black Sky scenario at the utility and international level, trains executives, and runs cross-sector exercises. Foundation for Resilient Societies advocates before federal regulators for cost-effective grid protection standards. Secure the Grid mobilizes public awareness and congressional action. InfraGard facilitates information sharing between the FBI and critical infrastructure operators. The Center for Security Policy provides national security analysis and media advocacy. The Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy ensures academic rigor. The EMP Commission provided the foundational science.

What was missing was the community-level implementation framework. No organization was providing municipalities, military installations, and households with a certifiable, measurable pathway from zero readiness to 30-day self-sufficiency — complete with infrastructure assessment tools, training curricula, grant navigation, and legal protection pathways.

That’s FIR’s contribution: the Fresh Start Initiative, the FIR Resilience Framework, the Bronze-through-Diamond Blue certification pathway, and the Four-Party Ecosystem threat model that connects adversary strategy to community readiness.

Get Involved

If any of the organizations above resonate with your interests or expertise, we encourage you to engage with them directly. The grid security problem is large enough to require all of us.

If your interest is specifically in community-level resilience — protecting your municipality, your military installation, your utility, or your household — start with FIR.

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The Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience is a 501(c)(3) national security nonprofit. The organizations listed above are described based on publicly available information from their websites and published materials. Listing does not imply endorsement, partnership, or affiliation unless specifically stated. FIR encourages readers to visit each organization’s website for the most current information about their work.