The incoming administration must focus on cybersecurity policies that protect the energy sector

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 before the November election, the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University, where I serve as director, released a joint report with the Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0 in which a task force of leading, bipartisan cybersecurity experts outlined 40 recommendations for the next administration. The experts assembled for this task force brought collective experience spanning the last five presidential administrations, congress, the intelligence community, defense, law enforcement, and the private sector. We released this report before the election to underscore the bipartisan and objective nature of the recommendations. Now that the transition is well underway, it is critical that the report’s content be weighed by whoever assumes the helm at the nation’s key cyber agencies next month.

It is widely known that cyber adversaries regularly and increasingly target America’s critical infrastructure, and the threat facing the energy sector is only growing more severe. Ongoing fallout surrounding the Chinese Communist Party-linked threat actors, Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, underscore the severity of the threat landscape.