These days, everyone is hearing about how cybersecurity threats could affect the power grid. It's time for them to hear something else, and the new message should come from the folks who make, move and manage their power: the CEOs of the U.S. electric utilities.

Targeted cyberattacks like Stuxnet, Conficker, Duqu and most recently Flame are multiplying. While the amount of risk they pose to U.S. and global critical infrastructure systems, including power grids, is widely debated, what's not in dispute is the ability of new cyber threats to cause trouble, add cost and capture headlines.

Meanwhile, in the trenches, federal and state regulators, regional transmission operators and the electric utilities themselves are deliberating over what steps will provide the most cybersecurity protection for the taxpayer's buck. To their credit, there have yet to be any significant outages, in North America anyway, caused by cyberattacks. But just because we haven't endured one yet, doesn't mean the industry is doing what is necessary to keep something serious from happening in the future.