cyber attack

  • OT Under Siege: Why Grid Control Systems Need a New Kind of Cyber Defense

    At a remote substation in the Midwest, I watched recently as a team of cybersecurity specialists gathered not to fix a breach but to simulate one. The substation—a medium-impact test site built by one of the nation’s largest utilities—has become a proving ground for the future of grid security. Before the North American Electric Reliability […]

  • The Incoming Administration Must Focus on Cybersecurity Policies That Protect the Energy Sector

    COMMENTARY As the incoming administration prepares its list of priorities once President-elect Trump is sworn in for a second term on Jan. 20, 2025, it is a national security imperative that cybersecurity policy be sufficiently prioritized in a manner that enhances the security of America’s electric grids and the energy sector, as a whole. Shortly […]

  • Smart Grid Telemetry, Data Key to Securing Distributed Energy Networks

    Energy data has a key role in securing and protecting our energy future. As the global shift to decentralized energy networks keeps growing, together with the rising adoption rates of electric vehicles (EVs), cyber adversaries are finding an expanding array of opportunities to attack and exploit the dynamic energy sector. By leveraging smart-grid energy telemetry […]

  • NERC: Power Industry ‘Well-Prepared’ for COVID-19, Aggressively Confronting Pandemic Threats

    Industry responses to a Level 2 alert on contingency planning issued by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) early last month suggest the “vast majority” of registered participants in the North American bulk power system are well prepared for the COVID-19 crisis.  NERC, the interconnected bulk power system’s Electric Reliability Organization (ERO), has underscored […]

  • U.S. Cybersecurity Super Team Reveals How Attackers Prompted Ukraine Blackouts

    External malicious actors deployed a “synchronized and coordinated” cyberattack to prompt the large-scale blackout in Ukraine last December, a U.S. interagency team has confirmed. The event on December 23, 2015— the world’s first power blackout prompted by a cyberattack—saw a swathe of unscheduled power outages afflict three regional power distribution companies (called the “Oblenergos”) and cut […]

  • Cyber Attack on U.S. Grid Could Destroy Dozens of Plants, Cost Billions, Report Says

    A cyber attack on the U.S. power grid could potentially destroy dozens of generating units, leave 93 million people without power for weeks, and result in nearly $250 billion dollars in economic damage, according to a new report from Lloyd’s of London. Prepared to enable insurers to gauge and prepare for potential risks, the report […]