A Case Study: Preparing for the Smart Grids - Identifying Current Practice for Information Security Incident Management in the Power Industry

The power industry faces the implementation of smart grids, which will introduce new information security threats to the power automation systems. The ability to appropriately prepare for, and respond to, information security incidents, is of utmost importance, as it is impossible to prevent all possible incidents from occurring. Current trends even show that the power industry is an attractive target for hackers. A main challenge for the power industry to overcome is the differences regarding culture and traditions, knowledge and communication, between ICT staff and power automation staff. This paper presents the background, research method and preliminary results from a case study identifying current practice on information security incident management in the power industry.