Concerns about cyber attacks on the U.S. critical infrastructure have reached a new level with The Wall Street Journal reporting “an evolution in the U.S. government’s thinking about how to deter malicious cyber actors”. As a result there is a push for explicit action around cyber security, and private utilities are asking the government for help.
As government and utility officials work out how they will work together to plan for and defend against damaging cyber attacks, there are measures utilities can take today. Find out ten things that can be done quickly to monitor and secure electrical transmission and distribution systems, as well as substations.
Smart Grid Cyber Security: Ten Actions Utilities Can Do Now
Here are ten things that utilities can do now to secure the electric grid:
- Know what assets you have in your system, so you can protect them
- Establish real-time monitoring of your ICS immediately, it takes just a few hours to set up.
- Identify known network and ICS risks using signature-based threat detection.
- Monitor for unknown risks with anomaly detection for industrial processes.
- Conduct ICS-specific vulnerability assessment (safely!).
- Ensure integration with IT monitoring tools and SIEM for IT SoC and CISO visibility.
- Ensure that you can consolidate incidents for root cause analysis and reporting.
- Look for proven technology, designed to protect industrial systems.
- Select technology that deploys quickly and easily for centralized oversight of remote sites.
- Ensure that you have incident response plans in place to respond to identified threats quickly and safely.
Immediate Value for Electric Power Operators
Unlike some enterprise-class applications, deployment of the Nozomi Networks real-time grid cybersecurity and visibility solution is straight forward and starts providing ROI quickly. Here’s why:
- It’s a passive solution that is completely safe for industrial networks and processes.
- It is a mature, 4th generation solution that is ISO9001:2105 certified and quick to deploy.
- It immediately brings benefits by identifying existing threats in the industrial network and improving the productivity of operations and IT staff.
Find out more with the resources available below.
