It's looking more and more like it will take a major attack against the U.S. power grid before the government and electric industry come together and get serious about protecting it.

According to a new investigative report that likely won't get much attention outside of certain circles, the U.S. electric grid is increasingly vulnerable as power companies lag behind in adopting better security measures.

And the result, someday soon, could be catastrophic — as in near-complete societal breakdown.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, the report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, says that the grid's vulnerability is heightened by an unprecedented wave of attacks that threaten to cripple the entire country.

NERC notes further that amid a wave of stepped-up attacks against key power stations, the organization has had difficulty convincing power companies to step up their protective measures meant to thwart would-be attackers and terrorists.

Since 2014, according to the Congressional Research Service, which cited from the NERC report, "security risks to the power grid have become an even greater concern in the electric utility industry," though the power sector "has not necessarily reached the level of physical security needed based on the sector's own assessments of risk."

The Free Beacon noted further:

In the three years since federal overseers implicated a series of new standards for physical security of grid locations, the industry has worked to improve its defenses but has struggled to implement all of the government's recommendations, according to the report.