Hearing addresses small utility cybersecurity threats
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently conducted a hearing as a means of addressing potential small utility cybersecurity threats.
Hearing committee members discussed cyberattack threats related to the energy industry and questioned witnesses about ongoing efforts to improve cybersecurity measures.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who serves as the committee’s ranking member, said the hearing was timely in the wake of reports of utility-related cyber threats.
“Just a few weeks ago our Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, publicly warned of two potential energy cybersecurity attack scenarios,” Manchin said. “A Russian cyberattack that could disrupt an electrical network for a few hours and a Chinese cyberattack that could disrupt a natural gas pipeline for weeks. I cannot overstate how serious a threat this is. Energy cybersecurity is national security. Period.”
James Robb, president and Chief Executive Officer at North American Electric Reliability Corporation, was among the witnesses who offered testimony.
“The small utilities are required to be compliant for those functions that they are responsible for,” Robb said. “One of the other initiatives that the industry has put in place is something called cyber mutual assistance. If an entity that is resource constrained suffers a cyber event or a physical event, in the same way that the industry will muster resources to help in storm recovery and so forth, we’ll also muster resources to help in cyber recovery.”
The hearing also featured witnesses from the West Virginia National Guard, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Energy and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.
