Electrical Grid Security: NERC CIP, Cyber Threats and Key Challenges

Electrical grid security has been getting a lot of attention recently. It started fairly quietly, and then when it was a featured story on a news program, it rose to the top of the collective consciousness. However, the news stories that followed were focused entirely on the physical vulnerabilities of the US power grids. Few, if any stories covered the cybersecurity angle of securing the grids. The physical grid machinery has remained woefully unprotected against attack. The physical power generating infrastructure of several power companies has been attacked in the United States just this…