Dept. of Energy Launches Plan to Protect Electric Grid from Cyberattack

The US Department of Energy today announced a 100-day plan to improve the cybersecurity of electric utilities' industrial control systems and the energy sector's supply chain.

This plan, a coordinated effort among the DoE, electricity industry, and the DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), aims to address "a well-documented and increasing" threat from attackers aiming to compromise systems and disrupt critical energy infrastructure.

Over the next 100 days, the DoE's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) will partner with electric utilities to improve technologies and systems that provide visibility, detection, and response capabilities for electric utilities' industrial control systems. Milestones in the plan aim to identify and deploy systems that enable situational awareness and response for critical ICS and OT networks, and improve IT network security.

The DoE has also released a new Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from electric utilities, energy companies, academia, research labs, government agencies, and other entities to help inform future recommendations for the supply chain security in US energy systems.

"The 100-day plan includes aggressive but achievable milestones and will assist owners and operators as they modernize cybersecurity defenses, including enhancing detection, mitigation, and forensic capabilities," writes National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Emily Horne in a statement on today's news.

Read the full DoE release for more information.