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The new age smart grid vendors are taking necessary measures to tackle the increasing cyber threats in the electric utilities.
FREMONT, CA: The interconnected electric distribution network, including smart grids, smart meters, and intelligent electricity distribution management, demands high-tech capabilities to provide cybersecurity against electricity thievery. The increase in digital connectivity has optimized energy reliability and performance, which also raises the vulnerability to cyber-attacks. The highly interconnected electric networks are complex in structure, and offering security to such complex infrastructure requires regulatory compliance, validations, and cybersecurity solutions.
With the rapid digitization, the growth of new connected systems such as IoT, smart metering, electric devices, expands the threat of cyberattacks. To secure electric distribution infrastructure, the electricity providers prefer new systems integrated with security measures and multiple features. The smart grid system providers look for innovative solutions that can be implemented in their electric services and products and achieve protection against the unpredictable threats incurring in the fast-changing digital world. Today, recurring security breaches trigger the smart grid’s risk concerns of utility executives across the globe.
The advances in IT and communication sectors give rise to new opportunities for smarter and efficient living. Technologies empowering real-time data and intelligent analytics operations reshape the functionalities of the next generation smart grid and promise security measures against the moderate risk of electricity supply. The highly connected smart grid networks drive precise monitoring of the electric flow and actively notify or alert in case of any suspicious activities in the electric distribution network. The introduction of intelligent features and facilities can increase the variety of electrical services and applications. Electric cybersecurity providers take technology approaches to maximize the smart grid’s capabilities with responsive and reliable communication networks. Wireless, scalable, and secure applications in the smart grid networks enable extensive cybersecurity measures and real-time operation performance. Technology-integrated appliances and devices offer multi-level security and operational effectiveness.
Encrypted cloud storage proves to be another critical security measure for smart grid networks. Cloud storage effectively secures data and information through encryption, which provides actionable information instantly and full visibility into the smart grid network. The implementations of cyberinfrastructures enable in-depth data collection and analysis from multiple electric distributed channels such as smart meters, sensors, and automated control devices. To reduce numerous cyber threats and increase the abilities to detect and identify the smart grid system’s anomalous behavior, smart grid network experts adopt innovative advantages of cloud storage, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and many more.
The continually changing nature of threats and vulnerabilities boost the acceptance level of innovative practices. Today, smart grid networks are integrated with different security stages and platforms to effectively validate and verify the authentication of consumer participation in smart grid networks. With the primary goal of developing a cybersecurity risk management system, the smart grid providers ensure the interoperability of solutions across the electric distribution network. For the existing smart grid systems, the cybersecurity providers offer numerous solutions based on both hardware and software that secure operational aspects from network visibility, maintenance management, cyber-attack detection, policy monitoring and enforcement, anomaly detection, and operational behavior assessment. The smart grid solution providers are, therefore optimizing their offerings with robust cyber-protection features.
