Whilst digitalizing has come with many benefits, making power networks stronger, safer, and more sustainable, they also come with the risk of attracting cyber attacks.
In the UK, 24% of all cyber attacks were directed at the energy industry and it is suggested that more than half of the utilities in the UK suffered a cyber attack in 2020. This drastic rise has left the energy sector as the leading victim of cyber attacks around the world.
Whilst these daunting statistics may make you want to reduce your digitalization efforts, this would be a huge mistake. Although there is an added cyber security risk involved, modernizing the grid also offers huge opportunities. With digitalization, you have the opportunity to increase resiliency, use remote monitoring, and improve your load balancing, amongst many other benefits.
Problems to solve
The challenge that companies face is to create and deploy a strong cybersecurity strategy that will support the sustainability of the entire business. Balancing the risks and benefits of IoT are integral to creating a cybersecurity strategy that works.
What about the cyber security risks?
With APC’s easy five-step approach, you can keep your network more cyber secure and still reap the benefits from digitalization. To keep your assets safe, cybersecurity should be a top priority for your company with proactive behaviour.
So what steps should you take to protect your network?
1. Assess: Start your cyber security protection plan with a comprehensive risk analysis of your current situation. This will help you identify any vulnerabilities you have that will need to be addressed.
2. Design: With your vulnerabilities in mind, design a secure cybersecurity policy to set out a formal set of rules for your company. This will help all employees to know what they can do to help protect the assets and not cause any accidental threats to cybersecurity.
3. Implement: For both hardware and software, security control solutions will need to be implemented. Ensure you opt for technologies that adhere to your security standards.
4. Monitor: When monitoring your network it is important to take a proactive approach. Hosting security devices and monitoring software can help with this.
5. Maintain: Once you’ve created and implemented your cyber security plan, you will need to work to keep this continuously maintained. Keep your cyber security program maintained through continuous updates and monitoring of threats and vulnerabilities to keep your assets safe.
This is just a brief look at APC, if you require APC equipment for your business, you can check our Schneider Electric microsite for a wide range of APC products to suit your needs.
Other Schneider Electric products Available from Comms Express:
Server Racks & Accessories | NetBotz Security and Environmental Monitoring | Extended Warranty | Accessory Extended Warranty | Power Distribution Units | Uninterruptible Power Supply
If you require any further information on these or any other products that we stock here at Comms Express, please do not hesitate to contact our team who will be only too happy to help.
Until next time…
