The size, scope and importance of America’s utility sector make it a tempting target for terrorists looking to wreak havoc or for financial criminals looking to infiltrate and pilfer. But the sector’s scale also means it has the resources to combat these threats, and utilities increasingly have been working together to share cybersecurity best practices as well as breaking information about possible threats.
Broadly speaking, utilities are well aware of the cyber and physical security threats they face and invest heavily in protecting themselves, says Bill Lawrence, senior director of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which has developed industry-wide Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards for utilities and others in the critical infrastructure sector to follow.