US President Joe Biden has announced a 100-day plan focused on rapidly strengthening US power grid cybersecurity.
The roll-out of the plan falls in-line with a global increase in attacks on control systems and utilities and comes on the back of the 2020 SolarWinds breach of US government departments.
The 100-day plan will be headed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and will be supported by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA will coordinate with the DOE along with a range of other government agencies.
The goals of the plan include encouraging grid owners and operators to implement measures or technology that enhances their detection, mitigation and forensic capabilities. Other goals include establishing milestones for the deployment of real-time response capabilities in critical industrial systems, bolstering the cybersecurity posture of IT networks and creating a voluntary system to encourage members of industry to boost government insight into potential threats in operational and industrial systems.
While a lot of the announcement focused on plans and concepts, the US government used the chance to lift a national security order ban from last year that banned the purchase of bulk-power systems for critical defence systems. This followed recent industry criticism that grid security was not addressed enough by the administration during its recently confirmed infrastructure plan.
Director of Security at US SecurTech firm LogRhythm Matt Sanders said, “The 100-day plan from the DOE and CISA currently calls the industry effort to deploy technologies to secure industrial control system (ICS) and operational technology (OT) voluntary, which may hurt its effectiveness. Over the past 20 years, industrial control systems have largely neglected operational technology and operational risk by air gapping data to compensate for deficiencies in network security and physically isolating platforms from unsecured networks.
“Any organization leveraging technology to enable operations for critical infrastructure needs to ensure proper protection protocols are established, ranging from threat detection, preventative controls and response controls to quickly thwart and identify potential catastrophes. Lagging detection and alerts can result in a disaster if controls or data are obtained by domestic or foreign adversaries.”
US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm added, “The United States faces a well-documented and increasing cyber threat from malicious actors seeking to disrupt the electricity Americans rely on to power our homes and businesses. It’s up to both government and industry to prevent possible harms—that’s why we’re working together to take these decisive measures so Americans can rely on a resilient, secure, and clean energy system.”
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