Your Energy Network’s 3 Biggest Risks
You’re plugged into the world’s largest network - even if your WiFi isn’t turned on. If you work in an office, manufacturing plant or hospital, this network enables your day. Without it, your business would be dead in the water.
This energy network carries more than just power because of its intensive reach, it carries information. Like any information network, the larger the network, the greater the threats.
How can you secure your network against these threats? By knowing the three main risks from information breaches in the energy network: energy systems, critical daily services, and of course, the information itself.
Risk to Energy System
Take away a country’s energy grid and you cripple a nation. A prime example: In 2015, Turkey suffered huge blackouts from cyber-attacks on their energy distribution system.
On a smaller scale, think of how helpless you are when your home has an electrical blackout or production has an outage. Energy is vital to our daily lives.
Risk to Information
Sensitive data from industrial facilities can be stolen through granular analysis of energy use. For example, a simple clamp on your office or factory’s main electrical feed can detect anything from the TV stations you’re watching to your full production schedule.
Envision the data that can be transmitted out of your business this way. For example, in the cloud computing industry data on a facility’s energy demand can provide critical competitive information.
Risk to Critical Daily Services
A data-driven energy system is a conduit for hacking electricity-dependent devices, vehicles or industrial facilities. At this level, risks go beyond simple energy use disruption. Now those risks include degrading or destroying critical services that energy provides, such as emergency rooms, traffic lights and news feeds.
How do you combat this new era of vulnerable energy data?
Use your existing methods to prevent security breaches. Check that your energy service and equipment providers are using high-quality technologies and practices. Ensure your information security strategy is current and implemented, and design systems to mitigate what could go wrong.
Thanks to rapid changes in energy technology and demand, the energy network is becoming bigger and more diverse every day. Predicting or preventing all risk is impossible. Minimize your exposure to data breaches by focusing on your risk mitigation.
Find out how infoedge can get you ahead of this data-driven energy transformation.
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