Today's electric utilities are far more vulnerable to cyberattack than in the past. Their highly interconnected digital infrastructure enables real-time visibility in power system. Customer manage electricity consumption from their smartphones and deploys sophisticated tools for energy management. All this means that utilities are more and more exposed, to cyber-attacks/interventions as these features requires internet connectivity among utilities’ and other stakeholders’ IT networks.
Utilities must act definitively to minimize this risk, yet several challenges affect their ability to do so. Like continually evolving business and technology requirements, a widespread shortage of qualified personnel, additional risks associated with third-party connectivity, this becomes further critical as utility must ensure sensitisation & participation of the entire workforce in managing cybersecurity risks. The magnitude of these challenges is only amplified for small utilities, which lack the scale and resources of their larger peers.
