Currently, the online environment in general and the energy environment in particular are facing particular challenges, said Augustin Ionescu, Head of Digital Grid Smart Infrastructure, Siemens Romania, at the DigitALL 2022 conference organized by Energynomics.
“In the UK, 24% of cyber-attacks in 2021 have been directed against electricity networks. That says a lot, including on the demands from the supply market. Energy must be reliable, so that you can count on it at any time, it must be efficient and sustainable. The needs of the industry require solutions that are efficient, optimize the life cycle of products and be flexible. When it comes to buildings, they need to be adaptable, flexible, human-centered, and energy-efficient and sustainable. Turning to the security of electricity networks, we find that there is a huge increase in the digitalization of operational technologies, including energy automation systems. These trends give operators much more flexibility, but at the same time they increase the attack surface for hackers,” said Augustin Ionescu.
“If cybersecurity measures are not properly implemented, attacks will result. Malware, for example, is easily accessible via a USB stick or over a network. We can already talk about targeted malware, developed especially for energy automation systems. There are also and we face them, cloud components, and human error, and social engineering, and phishing, going as far as war-specific components, such as sabotage”, said Augustin Ionescu.
“Siemens is responding to these challenges, to these needs of the power grid through a holistic approach that addresses three main elements: people, processes and technology. As far as people are concerned, everyone should be aware of what is happening and, as far as possible, everyone should be aware of cybersecurity. These are the times we live in! Process security must cover the entire life cycle and implement operational solutions and requirements. And the technology must support the protection objectives of cybersecurity and comply with all the standards in force”, Ionescu pointed out.
Siemens implements security solutions at the organizational level, at the systems level and for products, in line with international certification processes, Augustin Ionescu also pointed out, offering some examples of processes carried out by Siemens in the field.
DigitALL 2022 was organized by Energynomics, in partnership with reputed organizations such as CIO Council and BusinessMark, with the support of our partners: ACE – Industrial Software Solutions, Eaton Electric, Nova Power & Gas, Procesio, SAS Romania, Safetech Innovations, Siemens România.
