North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, have built a prototype of a software-based system that would coordinate the activity of networked computers during an attack. The computers would be part of the infrastructure of control centers that collectively run the nation’s power grid. If a control center went down suddenly in an attack, then it could cause severe disruptions to the operations of other centers, causing blackouts to spread across regions. The research team plans to deliver preliminary findings of its work in June at the SmartAmerica Expo in Washington, D.C.”]