• What you need to know...

• Utilities companies in the UK face fines of up to £17million if they neglect cybersecurity.
• Renewable energy companies are at extremely high risk of cyberattacks.
• In 2015, hackers successfully shut down dozens of substations on the Ukranian electricity grid, causing power cuts for an estimated 225,000 users for several hours.
• The US Department of Energy has revealed plans to conduct a ‘hands-on’ test of the consequences of cyber attacks against the energy sector.

As the grid becomes smarter, it becomes more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

As a result of cyberattacks, critical infrastructure systems can become compromised and expose private data.

GlobalData’s Cybersecurity in Utilities report states that energy networks have been gradually transforming into smart grids over the past few years.

The increased connectivity is helping optimise energy reliability, however it has also heightened vulnerability to cyber attacks as the whole system is dependant on the security of their operators and millions of electronic devices linked to critical power facilities.