The Center for Cyber Security has issued a new threat assessment of the cyber threat to the energy sector, which, according to Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, senior researcher at DIIS, must be described as very serious. He says this to GridTech, where he also emphasizes the need for a service review of IT security.
– It will be expensive. Presumably, this is why prioritizing the area has long been postponed. In the cyber area alone, it is costly to upgrade security. If you also include physical security with fencing and the like, it will not be cheaper, says Flemming Splidsboel Hansen to GridTech and adds:
– Now, with the assessment here, the focus is on the challenges with cyber security. Still, there could also be physical sabotage, where you could think of cut pipelines, as we have already seen in Bornholm; cables are at risk too. I dare not say where we are most vulnerable, but it is obvious to give everything – both cyber security and physical security in the energy sector – a service overhaul.
In addition to the threats from ransomware, cyber espionage, and activism, the Center for Cyber Security has also assessed the threat from severe, destructive cyber attacks against the Danish energy sector.
Here, the authority still assesses that the risk is ‘low.’ However, they emphasize that “the war in Ukraine has made it clear that energy infrastructure is a priority target for Russia in an armed conflict.”
Translated from the Danish District Heating Association