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Follow on Google News | Smart Grid Today Publishes Groundbreaking Report on 'the Weakest Link' in US Grid CybersecuritySmart Grid Today published "The 2013 Fix," an exclusive report that includes “a nine-point action plan to begin understanding and controlling digitized distribution assets, ‘the weakest link’ in US grid cybersecurity.”
By: Smart Grid Today Utilities, state regulators and the US government can act now to curb looming cyber threats to the distribution side of the power grid, experts said in the report. One expert consulted for the report described digitized power distribution assets as a "very far-flung network" filled with "a variety of sensors and tools… that are relatively easy to climb up onto a pole to access." Progress toward the appropriate level of collaboration between federal and state regulators on cybersecurity for the distribution side of the power grid in the US is fragmented and does not match up with the seriousness of the threat, the report said. An estimated 80-90% of the North American power grid lies beyond the scope of federal cybersecurity regulations. Sources for "The 2013 Fix" included General Michael Hayden, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA); Indiana Utility Regulatory Commissioner Carolene Mays; Curt Hébert, a former FERC chairman and former state regulator in Mississippi; What the experts saidin the $499 report http://www.smartgridtoday.com/ QUOTABLE: As these are opportunities for people to profit from manipulating the grid and as we get the smart grid technology out there more, we know that there will be more motivation to manipulate markets to take advantage of the automation to do a variety of things either through sabotage, financial manipulation or strategic gain -- so those are all coming. -- Gib Sorebo, chief cybersecurity technologist at SAIC, in "The 2013 Fix" Experts quoted in the report recognize securing the distribution- Combating territorialism, vagueness "It is clear that the utility industry needs to develop an effective and routinized framework for collaborating on cybersecurity," "But if you dig deep enough, there are answers to how to begin to fix the situation," he added. "After moderating our revealing July webinar, Sean Lyngaas, our Washington reporter, conducted extensive interviews with the speakers and other high-level cybersecurity experts to put forth concrete proposals that would vastly improve the landscape. "Among them are adopting a 'business-case' approach instead of a 'compliance- Concrete steps explained "We have heard repeatedly that distribution- The cyber-threat experts Smart Grid Today assembled for "The 2013 Fix"weresounding an alarm, Brune said. "It is time to elevate and quicken dialogue and action on distribution- We asked the experts in the report to describe what they hoped would happen next in the US to start taking action to address the problems reported in the report and the webinar. Information sharing blocked "The sharing of timely and actionable information between industry and government in both directions is essential to mitigating potential threats," Hébert, who is now a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said during the webinar. "For industry, the location of the Electricity Sector Information Sharing & Analysis Center (ES-ISAC) at the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) creates challenges with respect to sharing information with the government. "Because NERC is a compliance entity, utilities may be hesitant to share information for fear of triggering an audit or an investigation," Problem goes both ways "Information sharing from government to industry also faces challenges," "With respect to information from intelligence agencies, few in the power sector have the high-level security clearances necessaryto get receipt of classified information, which limits utilities' access to potentially important information about threats." The executive order on cybersecurity that Obama signed in February told the US Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) to “expedite the processing of security clearances to appropriate personnel employed by critical infrastructure owners and operators.” ABOUT SMART GRID TODAY: Smart Grid Today's mission is to deliver daily, unbiased, comprehensive and original reporting on emerging trends, applications and policies driving the modern utility industry -- in a signature format our founders have developed over decades in the trade news business, featuring highly concise and easy-to-understand news copy based on trusted reporting, exclusive interviews, informed analysis and strategic insights that our subscribers rely on to succeed every business day. Smart Grid Today is published by Modern Markets Intelligence, Inc. CONTACTS Brett Brune VP of Editorial Modern Markets Intelligence, Inc. 888-907-1113 brett@mminews.com Season Crawford VP of Marketing Modern Markets Intelligence, Inc. 888-678-4480 season@mminews.com End
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