Hugo Rosemont, director of security and resilience at the ADS group, has outlined the five key elements utilities will need to focus on in order to be prepared for what he described as the “latent threat” of cyber security.
- Board-level attention
- Cyber security risk assessment
- Incident management plans
- Training and exercising
- A communications plan
He made the comments at Utility Week Live 2018, as part a panel of experts discussing cyber security and how data has the power to change the way the entire market operates.
In the same session, Jon Ferris, strategy director at Electron, suggested that establishing a blockchain shared asset register could effectively address a whole host of cyber security issues, but cautioned the industry must work with a shared goal in mind, rather than focussing on individual needs.
He said: “We don’t know the products that will develop the system in the next five to 10 years, so we need to focus instead on working collaboratively to optimise the system, not the self.”
Adrian Barrett, founder and CEO of Exonar agreed, but added that getting data management right is so much more important than avoiding the financial implications of getting it wrong: “It’s not about fines, it’s about reputational value.”