From: ECT.coop
Electric cooperative managers are being urged to approach cyber security challenges in the same ways they would prepare for other threats to system reliability—with training, prevention and awareness.
“Co-ops need people who can respond with agility to challenges as they change,” said Craig Miller, manager of NRECA’s regional smart grid demonstration project. “These people have to be persistently vigilant in looking for threats and looking for creative ways to protect against them.”
Miller and others from the electric co-op community discussed cyber security during the Midwest Smart Grid Peer-to-Peer Workshop hosted by NRECA’s Cooperative Research Network and the Energy Department, Dec. 12-13. The workshop was followed by a cyber security training session attended by representatives from dozens of co-ops and other utilities in Ames, Iowa, the following day.
Co-ops need to prepare to respond to cyber security threats just as they would respond to foul weather, copper theft or termite damage to wooden poles, said Regi Goodale, director of regulatory affairs for the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives. “It’s going to take some different tools to manage through this type of attack.”
Besides assessing the capabilities of staff and building relationships with advisors and consultants, co-ops should consider whether cyber security response plans should be updated as new technology is added to their systems.
“The need for security may increase on an item that initially started out as not being a high priority,” said Bill Freeman CEO of Clarke Electric Cooperative,
based in Osceola, Iowa. “As secure as we get, there are folks out there every day that are continuing to try to find a way around the next step.”
Workshop attendees were urged to include operations employees in discussions about cyber security plans to get their perspectives on potential threats and mitigation tactics.
“We want people to understand the scope of the cyber security problem so that they will know what they need to do to continuously improve,” Miller said, adding that more training sessions are planned. “We hope they will get the dialogue started that will help them identify the resources to meet their needs.”
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