'GridEx' offers stiff security test for an industry that welcomes the challenge

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/gridex-cyber-exercise/

By Sean Lyngaas
CYBERSCOOP
November 13, 2019

Every two years, power-grid authorities throw the kitchen sink of digital and 
physical mayhem at electric utilities and government organizations across North 
America.

It is one of the biggest tests of the utilities’ ability to withstand wave upon 
wave of hypothetical attacks — and they are not necessarily supposed to pass 
the test.

The GridEx simulation, which begins Wednesday, is “purposely designed to 
overwhelm even the most prepared organizations” so they can improve their 
resiliency, said Matt Duncan an official at the North American Electric 
Reliability Corp., which runs the drill.

Exercise participants won’t need any reminders that, in the last four years, 
malicious hackers have cut power for hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine 
and caused a petrochemical plant to shut down in Saudi Arabia. GridEx is one 
way that U.S. critical-infrastructure companies work to prevent such disruptive 
attacks from hitting them.

[...]

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