The power goes out, the phone network breaks down, the traffic collapses: cyber attacks on the energy sector as a vision of Horror. In food is trained, such as attacks by hackers can be prevented.
The energy industry is responding to the growing threat of hacker attacks on the power supply in Germany. The largest German electricity network operators, now has a training centre, in the defence of digital attacks is practiced. “The attackers will be better,” said the President of the Federal office for information security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, on Monday at the opening of the “cyber range-e” is referred to setup.
The training centre will help that “even the defenders are better”. A Blackout in the whole country lines could be in the worst case, the result of a hacker attack. As of 2015, in the Ukraine, as the hackers were several substations acquisitions, and hundreds of thousands of households without electricity. It could create the attacker, also in Germany, up in the Central areas of the power supply, was “probably only a matter of time”, had Schönbohm warned already a year ago.
Networking as the Achilles heel
This is because, with increasing digitisation and the convergence of power grids and the Internet, more and more gates will open for cyber attacks. The BSI had been in the past year, 270 incidents in the energy sector reported. Not every time there has been an attack. But the hackers used tools would be more aggressive, warned Schönbohm.
The red Hacker Team of cyber defense of the network operator in real-time
Norbert Pohlmann, Director of the Institute for Internet security at the westfälische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen, Germany, is convinced: “cyber attacks will play a greater role in future.”
Electricity networks are due to their Central importance for the economy and society a particularly attractive point of attack for foreign States or terrorists. “This increases the likelihood that they will be attacked.”
What happens when hackers oaks in the control Central of suppliers or network operators, including and processes manipulate, is simulated in an office building in the vicinity of the Essen Innogy Headquarters. “War Gaming” is the name of the energy company martial the Live role-playing game, for the the control systems of a network control center to the participating company to be recreated.
Red vs Blue
As in the case of a military maneuver, then Red against Blue. The blue Team, real employees of the energy companies, must fend off the attacks of the red team made up of professional hackers, which is housed in a different room.
“The anonymous threat of a cyber attack is real to life”, says Innogy for the training offer. The stress factor is increased for the participants, one after the other. What mail starts with a simple Phishing, you can end with the complete Takeover of the systems by the hackers. And in order to make the threat and physically, tangibly, can turn the attacker, the heating in the room of the defenders is high. The aim of the Exercises: During an attack, do not give in to panic and react properly.
The collapse of the power grids put on 16. June 2019 Buenos Aires lame
Innogy has developed the concept for the training center with one of the Israeli security experts based company, which already operates longer such a “CyberGyms”. The Essen-based company does not want to schools in the training facility, only the own employees, for the fight against the invisible opponent. Also, other energy providers and network operators should be able to test in food, if your precautions against intruders work.
So far, the dams of the power companies and utilities have held. “The operators have secured their IT in the last few years, and organizationally to the risk set,” says the BSI. In an international comparison, the German energy industry is well positioned. Entirely without prejudice to, they didn’t come in attacks of. Ironically, the Innogy parent RWE has been attack during the clashes in the hambach forest in the last autumn, the victim of a Cyber. Overload attacks, the corporate website of the brown coal-Verstromers hours of lame.