Cyber Resiliency in Electric Power Industry Based on the Maturity Model

Abstract

Many risks always exist in the power industry, as the supply and demand are affected by many stochastic internal and external factors. The number and magnitude of technological, economic, social and environment changes in this industry are also accelerating. The power industry is faced with many uncertain dimensions, where other forms of energy come into play, such as oil and gas supplies. Cyber-attack is where the most drastic pressure is put on the industry. Local and remote attacks occur often, which require a comprehensive command system to deal with them. Cyber-attacks must be prevented and mitigated ahead of time by Resiliency strategies and be managed as they occur by crisis management procedures. Implications and damages are kept to a minimum for business continuity. In this paper, we review the background and existing literature of power industry to identify the main factors and relationships. We use Iran case (Ministry of energy) as a developing country with many sources of natural energies as well as an extensive network of electric power. A recent case of Staxnet is to illustrate the magnitude of issues and shortcomings in the current system of cyber-attack response. We use future study approach to consider several scenarios of plausible future for power industries. We utilize the standard C2M2-ES for systematic dealing with Cyber risks and uncertainties in electric power industries. Optimization and simulation models are then used to evaluate and compare various strategies to respond to various circumstances.