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Increased smart grids adoption multiplies hack risks says Technavio
With wider adoption of information technology in power distribution networks, or smart grids as they are commonly called, the possibility of rogues taking control of a city’s power network or any power plant connected to these smart systems also rises dramatically says experts.
According to Technavio, a leading market research company, a few years ago, adversaries took control of systems that controlled critical operating parts of a facility involved in enriching uranium in Iran. They were then reprogrammed, heavily damaging the facility, while readings on control system displayed that the equipment was operating under normal conditions.
Smart grids offer grid operators greater control of the functions of the power network for improving its reliability allowing enhanced monitoring and efficiency through information exchange. Composed of various integrations of information technology and operation technology systems to manage different functions, smart grids offer various access points for adversaries to breach its security systems said Technavio.
Though the integration of IT systems offers several benefits such as remote monitoring and automation of controls across various geographical locations, it also opens up new vulnerabilities for attacks. This in turn, will be one of the major factors that will fuel the demand for the smart grid security systems market during the forecast period.
It has predicted, that the threat potential of smart grids will fuel global smart grid cyber security market growth. This security market is expected to grow steadily at a compounded annual growth rate of almost 10% by 2020.
Cloud-based smart grid applications offer organizations several features to reduce operational costs and also to centralize their resources. However, cloud-based applications are hosted on the Web, which makes these applications more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Harold Carmichael Jersey
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