This is the utilities’ data and DOE analyzed it… and it was still missed DOE’s Form OE-417 collects information from the US utilities on electric incidents and emergencies. The OE-417 data covers the time span from 2000 through the end of February 2022 and so does not include any incidents since the start of the […]
Category: Electric
The survey results of the 2022 DNV energy cyber security report are grossly misleading
DNV published The Cyber Priority report, “The State of Cyber Security in the Energy Sector”. I believe the oil, gas, and chemical (not electric) industries are leading most industries addressing control system cyber security. The report states the research draws on a survey of 948 energy professionals and a series of in-depth interviews with industry […]
Critical infrastructure cyber security is broken – process sensors continue to be ignored
While no one would argue that network security isn’t important, it’s also important that the basic process sensor data that cross the OT network not be overlooked. Process sensors are necessary input for reliability, availability, safety, predictive maintenance, product quality, and cyber security. Yet process sensors have no cyber security and are connected to the […]
Utility industry continues to deny that control system cyber incidents are occurring
Control system cyber incidents are real and impactful (more than 500 control system cyber incidents in the electric industry). To date, most of these incidents have not been identified as “cyber” because of lack of identified intent. When reporting and remediating a control system cyber incident, the intent isn’t as important as the impact of […]
Control system cyber incidents in electric and other sectors are frequent, often impactful, but not reported
The electric and nuclear industries have required “incident” disclosure for more than 20 years. The other infrastructure sectors either have no incident disclosure requirements or only recently started such as TSA for pipelines and EPA for water. There is a significant gap between the electric industry’s reported control system cyber incidents and actual control system […]
CISA finally issues guidance on cyber issues with Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs)
After years of prodding and multiple UPS cyber incidents (https://www.controlglobal.com/blogs/unfettered/cyber-vulnerable-uninterruptible-power-supplies-upss-have-caused-physical-damage-to-data-centers), March 29, 2022, CISA has finally stepped up and issued guidance on some aspects of UPS cyber vulnerabilities – https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CISA-DOE_Insights-Mitigating_Vulnerabilities_Affecting_Uninterruptible_Power_Supply_Devices_Mar_29.pdf. This is certainly welcome progress. However, more work is still needed to address other aspects of insecure building and data center control systems: insecure process […]
It is not possible to meet Senate cyber disclosure requirements or CISA OT recommendations
I am preparing a presentation on the lack of cyber security in process sensors titled: “Shields Up and Good Cyber Hygiene Does Not Apply to Insecure Process Sensors” for a March 10, 2022 seminar. Process sensors have no inherent cyber security and yet have hardware backdoors directly to the Internet. The cyber security gap includes no […]
Cross industry meeting to address the gap in process sensor cyber security and process safety
A virtual cross-industry meeting was held on January 5th, 2022 under the purview of IEEE, with universities and standards development and industry organizations representing a cross-section of critical infrastructures. Essentially, “a coalition of the willing”. As process sensors are used in all sectors, the intent of the meeting was to create outcomes and a way […]
There’s more to control system cybersecurity than IT and OT networks – TSA is missing that distinction
Control system cyber incidents affecting pipelines, rail, and aviation have caused catastrophic damage resulting in multi-billion-dollar impacts and hundreds of deaths. Detecting cyberattacks against IT and OT networks can be done today. However, the same cannot be said for detecting control system cyber incidents (attacks and unintentional incidents) that occur with the cyber insecure control […]
Power grid cyber security recommendations still don’t address key grid cyber vulnerabilities
In August 2021, DNV published DNV-RP-0575, “Recommended Practice, Cyber security for power grid protection devices”. The Recommended Practice is important as it was developed based on the results of a joint research and development project with Fingrid (Finland), Stattnet SF (Norway), and Svenska Kraftnet (Sweden) and used by T&D India following the Chinese cyberattacks. The […]