Reports: US energy infrastructure security not up to snuff
- Tuesday, 18 August 2009 10:40
A pair of reports cast a spotlight on the integrity of North America's energy infrastructure. Organizations of various sizes responded to a poll for one report, with the majority stating that they receive anywhere from 75 to 150 cyberattacks on things like businesses and traffic systems per week. More importantly, according to the report, new smart grid and smart meter technology could exacerbate the problem, and even the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) says its protocols are not yet going far enough.
NERC is a nonprofit organization that develops security standards for North American energy and utility companies. In a recent survey, NERC found that only 23 percent of its affiliates could identify Critical Cyber Assets (CCAs)—weak networked access points that could be used to maliciously manipulate energy infrastructure—under their control. In response to these findings, Michael Assante, NERC's Chief Security Officer, issued a statement (PDF) calling for organizations to take "a fresh, comprehensive look at their risk-based methodology... with a broader perspective on the potential consequences to the entire interconnected system of not only the loss of assets that they own or control, but also the potential misuse of those assets by intelligent threat actors."
