Communications, Cyber Resilience, and the Future of the U.S. Electric Power System Proceedings of a Workshop (2020) / Chapter Skim
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The presentations and discussions at the workshop provided the committee with diverse perspectives on current and future threats to the electric power system, activities that the subsector is pursuing to defend itself, and how this work may evolve over the coming decades. Specific focus areas for the presentations and discussions included the current state and security of the electric system and its relationship to national security, challenges posed by cybersecurity attacks and 1
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While the list of topics discussed was not exhaustive, the workshop was organized with the goals of bringing diverse and potentially conflicting ideas into one room to facilitate transparent discussion, to challenge assumptions, and to lead to new insights to address cybersecurity risks facing the grid. A more robust discussion of the physical threats to the grid can be found in the previous National Academies reports Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System1 and Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System.2 STRENGTHS OF THE ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM Several key themes emerged over the course of the workshop.
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Only two of them have shown the capability to be destructive, but I'm worried about those eight that across that same trend in 3 to 4 years are going to be learning about how to achieve this." In addition to the complex cybersecurity threats presented by malicious actors, the grid faces threats from design flaws, accidents, and natural events. Particularly worrisome to some participants are the threats posed by EMP events, resulting from nuclear detonation at a high altitude or in space, and GMD events, which result from activity of the sun.
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"The security and resilience of our country is becoming more intertwined with critical infrastructure than ever before," said Caitlin Durkovich, Toffler Associates. "We also know that nation states understand and continue to get better insight into the importance of our nation's infrastructure to our national security and our economic security." WORKING TOWARD RESILIENCE To counter these threats, participants stressed the need to build resilient power systems, which committee member Bill Sanders defined as being capable of "providing trustworthy grid operation in hostile environments." Several speakers urged a proactive effort to increase the capacity not only to protect and defend against attacks but to respond and recover when they occur.
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For EMP and GMD threats, participants discussed physical barriers and designs that could protect certain electric system elements, such as shielding conductive concrete, but noted that additional research, technology development, and modeling is needed to better understand, detect, and prepare for these threats. As another example, advanced sensing, analytics, and control functions can lead to better detection and response abilities for cyber and physical systems, but it will be important to transition to smart grid technologies in ways that enhance security and resilience without unwittingly increasing the attack surface.
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In addition, some suggested that a central federal coordinating body is needed to establish an overarching strategy and corresponding policies, authorities, and regulations to achieve it. The government can support infrastructure security by providing faster, better, and more scalable mechanisms for information sharing; creating incentives for military defense-critical security installations; and maturing the national security doctrine and toolkit for when and how systems respond when adversaries probe them.
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"We have to move beyond this current ‘piece-and-patch' mentality," urged Sanders. "We have to be ahead of the game." While the challenges are substantial, he and other participants expressed hope in the subsector's ability to meet them through collaborative efforts to create a secure, resilient, integrated, and modern infrastructure.
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