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Crafting a sound security framework will strengthen the electric utility firms’ cybersecurity capabilities and better protect their customers.
FREMONT, CA: A cyber attack against the electric grid could have enormous consequences that would ripple throughout the enterprise. Cyber risk in the electric power sector is one of the most challenging vulnerabilities. But, there are many things that firms can do to minimize risk and better protect their assets. Below is a brief of related activities that can be put into place by electric utility firms to address cyber risk efficiently.
• Better Understanding of Essential Security Goals
A better understanding of managing cyber risks associated with energy systems, data, and capabilities is primary for electric utilities. These firms need to identify the systems, devices, users, data, and facilities that support their daily business processes and appropriately prioritize them. Ensuring that the business environment and governance of the firms align with essential cybersecurity goals, and employing useful risk assessment tools and risk management strategies is mandatory.
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• Testing Tools and Processes
Tailoring appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of security breaches is primary in addressing challenges. To detect theft, electric utility firms need to make threat detection to occur within the network. For that, firms need to segment networks, patch systems, remove the default and shared passwords, and monitor unauthorized access. In addition to this, firms also need to assess current security posture and its efficacy towards responding to threats rapidly. Firms need to test tools and processes and conduct incident dry-runs to ensure familiarity with risk events, where security teams can learn while responding.
• Having Resiliency Plan in Place
Maintaining plans of resiliency and the ability to restore any service that suffered impairment due to cybersecurity breach is of utmost importance for electric utility firms. Using detection tools can capture indicators of compromise and suggest procedures that will save time in identifying where the attack happened and what attacker’s goal is.
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