DOE Backs U.S. Grid Cybersecurity Group As New 'Worm' Emerges

DOE also awarded $4.1 billion to a group led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to provide research and analytical resources to help in the establishment of NESCO. Working with EPRI will be DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Energy Daily no. 185
Main Author LOBSENZ, GEORGE
Format Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Englewood IHS Markit Ltd 28.09.2010
Subjects
Automation
Collaboration
Consortia
Cybersecurity
Data acquisition
Electric power
Electricity
Electricity distribution
Energy industry
Energy infrastructure security
Federal regulation
Laboratories
Nuclear facilities
Renewable energy
Smart grid technology
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ISSN0364-5274

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Summary:DOE also awarded $4.1 billion to a group led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to provide research and analytical resources to help in the establishment of NESCO. Working with EPRI will be DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with Siemens and ABB serving in an industry advisory role in the collaborative. Other speakers at the conference noted that cybersecurity standards for the North American grid already have been set by NERC, which is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. However, the speakers emphasized that the NERC standards were limited in scope, and that government-industry collaboration was greatly restricted under NERC because utilities and other energy companies are subject to compliance and enforcement action by NERC and FERC if they fail to meet NERC's standards. Given those risks, the speakers said utilities would feel much freer to share information about implementation issues with an organization such as NESCO. The formation of NESCO comes amid growing concern about cyber-attacks on industrial infrastructure, illustrated most vividly by recent news reports about the apparent attack of the so-called Stuxnet computer "worm" on Iranian nuclear facilities. The worm, first identified by a computer security firm in Belarus in June 2010, reportedly attacks so-called supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) that automatically control industrial equipment and which are becoming increasingly deployed on the grid.
ISSN:0364-5274