- Critical infrastructure is under attack. Cyber threats to the energy sector have surged by 80% in one year.
- The average data breach in the energy sector now costs companies over $5 million, significantly more than the cross-industry average.
- Protecting our critical infrastructure from a data breach requires urgent investment in modern technology and proactive security strategies.
Delivering safe and reliable power around the clock is a huge challenge. A task made even more difficult by the sharp rise in cyberattacks on the energy and utilities sector.
Recent research from Trustwave SpiderLabs found that cyber threats against the sector have surged by 80% year-over-year, costing organizations nearly half a million dollars more per breach than the cross-industry average of $4.8 million.
Our energy systems have become a prime target for cybercriminals, ransomware groups, and—increasingly—nation-state actors looking to disrupt economies, cripple critical infrastructure, and create geopolitical instability.
Why? Because energy production isn’t just another business, it’s the business that powers every other industry. A successful cyberattack on a single utility provider can cascade across sectors, taking down hospitals, banking networks, telecommunications, and manufacturing in one fell swoop. The energy sector needs to take immediate action to shore up vulnerabilities and adopt cybersecurity strategies that match the scale of the threat before a large-scale attack can take down our national infrastructure.
An Aging Grid in a Modern Threat Landscape
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has warned that every day we wait to update our electrical grid, 60 new vulnerabilities emerge. That’s 60 more daily opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit weaknesses in a system that was never built to withstand modern threats.
Despite this urgency, many providers still rely on decades-old operational technology (OT), the hardware and software that control our physical infrastructure, that is well past its intended lifespan. Most OT systems were designed for reliability and efficiency, not security. Unlike many IT systems, which can be patched and updated as threats emerge, many OT environments require continuous uptime, making security upgrades complicated and expensive.
However, as OT and IT systems converge, these once-isolated environments will share the same networks, multiply attack vectors, and expose utilities to the same threats that plague corporate networks. The combination of aging infrastructure, a rapidly expanding attack surface, and increasingly sophisticated cyber adversaries has made the energy sector one of the most vulnerable industries today.
Without immediate investment in grid modernization, we risk not just technical failures but creating the perfect storm for widespread disruptions that could cripple supply chains, strain emergency response resources, and endanger public safety.
Breaches Cost More Than Money
The average cost of a breach in the sector now sits at $5.29 million, nearly half a million dollars higher than the cross-industry average of $4.8 million. While the financial burden of a breach in this sector cannot be understated, neither can the consequences of breaches that go beyond financial loss.
Take the Colonial Pipeline attack from 2021, which resulted in fuel shortages along the East Coast, forced airlines to scramble for alternative fuel suppliers, and sent consumers into panic-fueled buying frenzies. While the breach was financially harmful for Colonial Energy, the true cost of the attacks was felt by the millions of businesses and consumers who depended on the pipeline’s reliable fuel supply. The attack exposed just how comprehensive an impact a single cyberattack can have when critical infrastructure is targeted and compromised.
Securing the Grid Before It’s Too Late
While the threats facing the energy sector are increasing, both in quantity and severity, they are not insurmountable. Through a combination of proactive security measures, regulatory compliance, and investment in modern infrastructure, utility providers can mitigate their risk and strengthen our national grid resilience.
The most common attack entry method—phishing—accounts for a staggering 84% of breaches in the sector. To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should invest in comprehensive employee training to recognize and prevent phishing attacks. Authentication measures, like multi-factor authentication and access controls, can further block an attacker’s ability to access sensitive systems through compromised credentials.
To detect further abnormal activity and potential cyber threats beyond phishing attacks across all OT and IT environments, organizations should invest in advanced threat detection and response systems to monitor for abnormal activity across all OT and IT environments. Intrusion detection systems, endpoint detection and response, and real-time monitoring tools provide teams with early warning signs of intrusions, preventing attackers from moving laterally within critical networks.
It's Time for Progress
The energy sector is not just another industry, it’s the foundation for the growth and success of every industry. Defending critical infrastructure against cyberattacks requires a shift in our approach, prioritizing prevention over reaction, resilience over convenience, and collaboration over isolation.
Aging infrastructure remains one of the sector’s most pressing vulnerabilities. While many providers still rely on legacy OT systems, transitioning to secure, modernized infrastructure and systems will help to fortify the grid against rising threats.
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A version of this article originally appeared in T&D World.
