- As utilities turn to sources of renewable energy and add millions of other components like smart meters, they’re rapidly multiplying the number of connections and sensors along their networks, widening the potential for intrusions.
- Over the past four decades, power plants and substations have been moving from manual to automatic controls, and are increasingly being connected to public and private networks for remote access, leaving them exposed to attacks. Producers and distributors have also often been reluctant to spend on protecting themselves against low-probability attacks.
- “Essential state infrastructures like power grids and nuclear reactors have been and will continue to be a target of cyber attacks because modernization allows internet connectivity, which makes them vulnerable,” said Kim Seungjoo, a professor at Korea University’s School of Cybersecurity. “It’s almost a natural instinct of hackers, especially the state-sponsored ones, to attack energy infrastructure because they can easily disrupt national security.”
– David Stringer and Heesu Lee | March 3, 2021
