On June 6, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee put forward legislation designed to boost security for the systems used to power the electric grid and other critical services in the United States.
The need for this legislation shows the seriousness of the threats against industry in general and the electrical grid more specifically. The Homeland Security Committee recognizes that industrial control systems (ICS) are being specifically targeted because of vulnerabilities in the current security framework.
Read more in The Hill article “House panel approves bill to secure industrial systems from hacks”.
Since attackers can always find their way around air-gaps or networks firewalls, whether via malware on transient devices or through compromise of network infrastructure, a new systemic or end-to-end security approach is needed. To properly protect these systems requires a security model that makes devices tamperproof and directly protects the interactions between people, machines, software and control systems.
The solution to securing industrial systems, including the electric grid, does not require wholesale industrial control system replacement. Technologies that protect devices from tampering and control access exist now to address these needs.
