Central body puts officials on notice over Heartbleed

Power plants across the country are threatened by cyber attacks that could disrupt their functioning in a big way. The National Security Council (NSC) has warned the energy department that the Heartbleed bug is one of the biggest internet security flaws ever unearthed.

This comes at a time when the Union energy department is adopting the latest digital technology to control the power system. The two-day energy ministers’ conference scheduled for April 28-29 by the Union power ministry will discuss the cyber attack threat to power plants in India.

There were 111 cyber incidents reported by the energy sector during the six months ending May 2013, compared to about 81 incidents reported in the preceding 12 months, according to the cyber emergency response team.

A three-pronged action plan has been proposed by the NSC to counter the threat and keep safe the power sector. It includes the migration of power plants to the next generation, and the introduction of smart cities.

The Indian power sector is currently migrating to the next generation IP-based industrial control systems, including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCDA) systems and smart metering solutions.

Experts say as the country migrates to the next generation systems it needs to put cyber security considerations at the forefront.

In a potential cyber attack, hackers can control the power generation and they can stop power production remotely.

Hackers are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure around the world the most targeted sector worldwide was energy, accounting for 41 per cent of reported events in 2013, followed by water at 15 per cent.

They said that India is in the early stages of introducing new technology and should adopt good processes and practices to ensure the cyber security of its next generation networks.