A new convergence for electrical grid security

US energy industry regulators and analysts are increasingly repeating the same message: Grid operators need to unify their cybersecurity and physical security strategies.

Power plants and transmission/distribution system operators (TSOs and DSOs) have long focused on maintaining uptime and enhancing the resilience of their services; keeping the lights on is always the goal. That’s especially true as the past few years have seen the rise of OT/OT convergence, wherein formerly siloed equipment that runs physical processes for critical infrastructure (operational technology, or OT) has been hooked up to the IT network and the Internet in some cases, exposing it to more cyberthreats. Now, another type of convergence been forcing a new conversation.

On one hand, cyber threat actors increasingly look to cause actual operational disruption in the field. It’s awkward, as “operations teams that once focused solely on hardware and uptime are now being asked to scan logs, document evidence of compliance and assess threats,” analysts from Black & Veatch wrote in an industry report published today. In a survey, they found that grid operators expressed equal worry over ransomware, miscellaneous malware, and cloud vulnerabilities.

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