“The Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) leads efforts to improve the nation's cyber security posture, coordinate cyber information sharing, and proactively manage cyber risks to the Nation while protecting the constitutional rights of Americans. US-CERT strives to be a trusted global leader in cyber security—collaborative, agile, and responsive in a dynamic and complex environment.” (Source: US-CERT)
The organization just published a must-read summary document covering various issues from the last three months (October – December 2012). You will find a bunch of very useful information about what has happened and what could happen next.
One focus of US-CERT is the energy sector: From October 2011 to September 2012 “ICS-CERT received and responded to 198 cyber incidents as reported by asset owners and industry partners. Attacks against the energy sector represented 41 % of the total number of incidents.”
The large-scale and fast growing deployment of IEDs (Intelligent Electronic Devices) in the whole energy sector (including the huge domain of electric power systems) necessitates the development and application of appropriate security measures.
The year 2013 will be a challenging year to keep the power flowing: the aging infrastructure, the need for smart generation, delivery, and use of power requires smart people that will develop smart processes and smart devices. And: All decisions and solutions to keep the power flowing, the sky blue and grass green MUST be accompanied with existing and new security measures!
Security is more than just a buzzword!
I hope that the responsible managers in power systems have increased the budget for increasing security activities for 2013 (and beyond).
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