In recent months, the media have been buzzing with talk about the "Smart Grid," especially since then-President-Elect Barack Obama featured the need for new Smart Grid technology in a January 2009 speech on the economy. Now, the Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its partner institutions, have been recruited to contribute towards the ongoing development of a resilient, secure Smart Grid in the United States, following the announcement of a major award of research support from the U.S. Department of Energy with contributions from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.