OEB Provides First Look At Proposed New Cyber Security Framework

In December 2015, the lights blinked out across multiple provinces in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine. Nearly a quarter of a million people lost power. Shortly after power was restored, Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team announced they had identified the root cause: a cyberattack targeting as many as eight power distribution companies.

As cyber warfare comes of age, outmoded "dumb grids" look increasingly vulnerable. Moreover, the problem is not just technical, but institutional: when hackers infiltrated Target in late 2013, they did so by first hacking a vendor using a phishing attack. Although Target's own security policies may have been robust, the firm's stable of external vendors each brought their own vulnerabilities to the table.