A comprehensive walkthrough of the first-ever attack on a public energy grid, and solutions that can be put in place to detect and prevent similar future attacks.
On December 23, 2015, unknown cyber forces disrupted energy-grid operations for the first time ever, causing blackouts for over 225,000 customers in Ukraine. This incident impacted operators in the electricity sector, but the tactics used in this attack could have easily played out against operators in any sector.
Cyber threats are no longer the concern of IT system administrators and network engineers, but must be as central to running a safe, efficient, and competitive business operation. Cyber attacks are now concerted, orchestrated efforts to exploit vulnerabilities in people, systems and processes—they are impactful, long-lasting, and often professional efforts, to use an organization’s network infrastructure against it in a highly targeted way.
