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Energy operator ramps up security against hacker threat
By Cole Latimer
Australia has the world’s longest single electricity grid, running more than 5000 kilometres from Port Douglas in Queensland to the bottom of Tasmania providing power to the majority of the country.
Its importance goes unrecognised by Australians despite the role it plays in millions of lives every day, but a single determined hacker can take it all away.
The east coast's electricity network is the longest on earth, and a potential target for hackers.
Last year, hackers disabled millions of computers through the WannaCry and Petya cyberattacks, taking down the UK’s national health service and Ukraine’s electricity networks respectively.
EY listed cyber attacks as the single largest threat to the world’s power and electricity companies worldwide.
These hackers are able to shut down power stations and cause widespread blackouts, shutting down public transport and hospitals.
In Australian Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s 2017 review blueprint for the future of the country’s electricity sector he outlined the need to protect the infrastructure to prevent these blackouts from occurring.
This need for protection was thrown into light after it was revealed the sale of Australian electricity distributor to a Chinese partnership was rejected to ensure Ausgrid’s power and fibre communications cables which connected to national security assets remained in Australian hands.
This is why the Australian Energy Market Operator is ramping up the nation's electricity infrastructure cybersecurity to protect the country’s power network, supported by the newly launched Australian Cyber Security Centre in Canberra.
Speaking at the launch of the Cyber Security Centre last week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull outlined the importance of cybersecurity to Australia.
“The number one priority for my government and indeed for every government is the safety and security of the nation,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We must not and will not wait for a catastrophic cyber incident before we act to prevent future attacks.”
AEMO is developing a grid-wide cybersecurity program to prevent these blackouts, and the major flow-on effects, from happening.
AEMO group manager for risk and security Tim Daly told Fairfax Media: “It’s well known that cybersecurity is an increasing cause of concern for government and business.”
“This is a very important initiative.”
Hackers have the capability to shutdown power stations, causing widespread blackouts.Credit: Glenn Hunt
This initiative was also in focus at the Coalition of Australian Governments Energy Council meeting earlier this month, albeit taking a backseat to discussions around the National Energy Guarantee policy reform.
“We’ve been working on this framework for about a year, taking a holistic approach across the entire value chain from the generators through to the transmission, distributors and onwards,” he said.
Until recently, the east coast’s grid was protected from cyber attack by a mix of different companies and government-owned operations disparate cyber programs, AEMO’s program looks to bring them all together for total collaboration in the sector.
“This program looks to put in place a consistent way of measuring our cybersecurity and performance,” Mr Daly said.
He said the new cybersecurity framework will build on this existing programs and integrate successful infrastructure cybersecurity programs from around the world.
“We’re not looking to reinvent the wheel here, we’re adapting a number of existing frameworks that work around the world,” he said.
He pointed to the NIST Cyber Security Framework, which provides a policy framework and guidance, for how companies can assess and improve their capability to detect and respond to cyber attacks, as one process under examination.
“We’re augmenting these tried systems to build an Australian framework,” he said.
“This framework is now being put in place to help organisations to control and measure their current levels of security and create benchmarks.
“We’re working directly with these companies. It’s been very positive so far, and comes as the Australian Cyber Security Centre launches.”
AEMO plans to spend around $10 million on its cybersecurity program.
It will report to the Coalition of Australian Governments Energy Council at the end of the year on the program’s progress.