Protecting energy infrastructure from cyber attack

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has announced awards totalling US$ 30 million for the development of tools and technologies to strengthen protection of the country’s electricity grid and oil and gas infrastructure from cyber attacks. Energy organisations in California, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington State are going to start developing new systems and frameworks as well as services that will advance the US DOE’s plans for a more resilient energy delivery and control system.

All the Department’s cyber security efforts alight with the ‘Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity’, which was developed by the energy sector in coordination with the Department. The Roadmap outlines a strategic framework over the next 10 years to design, install, operate and maintain a resilient energy delivery system capable of surviving cyber incident while sustaining critical functions.

Energy Secretary comments

‘Keeping the nation’s energy flowing is vital to the safety and well being of Americans, out economic prosperity, and modern society as a whole. To meet the challenges of today’s evolving cyber landscape, we must continue investing in innovative, state of the art technologies.’

Funded projects

Eleven projects have benefitted from the US$ 30 million discussed above including:

• ABB – developing a system that allows substation devices to work together to validate the integrity of communications, such as commands to change a protective relay’s configuration and assess the potential impact on grid operations.
• Foxguard – developing a service that allows utilities to simplify the process of keeping up to date with the most current firmware and software patches and updates.
• TT Government Solutions – developing a technology that analyses and visualises smart meter wireless communications to quickly detect unusual behaviour that could suggest a cyber attack.

Adapted from press release by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/20092013/cyber_security_infrastructure_investment/