Its objective has been to generate new, innovative, verifiable, and scalable cybersecurity technologies "that allow us to collaboratively build long-term solutions to meet the business and competitiveness challenges of the electronics sector in the smart grids of the future." Ultimately, it's about providing innovative technologies as solutions to the cybersecurity challenges facing the electricity sector, and doing so through a collaborative innovation model, which has brought about an unprecedented cultural shift for the participating companies.
“What we’ve been working on at TrueValSec is defensive cybersecurity that takes into account all the elements that make up the value chain. In other words, establishing more advanced defense mechanisms to try to make the electrical grid impenetrable. These types of cybersecurity measures, aimed at preventing any kind of attack, are undoubtedly the most important in a changing world, so we must invest in them,” explains Imanol García, Head of Cybersecurity at Ingeteam’s UN Power Grid Automation division.
As a result of the project, an initiative supported by the Basque Government through the Hazitek 2021 R&D support program and co-financed by the European Union through ERDF funds, the participating companies have developed: a specification of cybersecurity needs across the entire electricity grid value chain; low-latency encryption systems; new functionalities; and methodologies for much more advanced cybersecurity analysis and evaluation of devices that are part of the smart grid. “The idea is that in the future we can subject the equipment to much more advanced tests to detect vulnerabilities and prevent potential cyberattacks.”.
Within the framework of the project, and among other points, work has focused on the "chain of trust," analyzing how to extend its reach to cover all the elements involved: from the operator to the manufacturers of end devices, the deliveries, installation, and integration into the electrical grid system of the multiple components of different natures that comprise it, in order to guarantee a cybersecure network "from beginning to end." Imanol García adds in this regard that "everything that can be developed collaboratively to prevent attacks on the grid and establish appropriate contingency plans for potential energy cyberattacks, especially in infrastructures considered critical, is fundamental."
Furthermore, he points out, “doing it collaboratively, even with competing companies, has been a novelty due to the change in philosophy that working together on such a critical matter as cybersecurity has entailed. We are large companies with leading technical teams, and when we started sharing cybersecurity issues, we found that we all benefited,” emphasizes Imanol García.
The GAIA Cluster, for its part, adds that cybersecurity in the electricity sector's value chain is an area of work with a long way to go: "All the actors involved perceive the need to address it in the short term, from equipment manufacturers to integrators, operators and service providers, and at GAIA we will continue working in this direction."
