While a nightmare scenario of computer hackers taking down the entire U.S. power grid indefinitely is a stretch, the country needs to bolster the cyber-security of its power systems, a Heritage Foundation defense and foreign policy analyst told Newsmax TV on Monday.

Jim Carafano joined "Midpoint" host Ed Berliner for an eye-opening chat about ways in which power grids might be disrupted by malice — hackers have shown they can program electrical generators to burn themselves out — or by acts of nature such as big solar storms that tend to happen about once a century.

"We're kind of overdue for one of those," Carafano said.

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