Hyas Blog | Securing the Modern Grid: Why Infrastructure Intelligence is Required for Critical Infrastructure
As global tensions rise and the energy sector undergoes rapid digital transformation, the stakes for protecting critical infrastructure have never been higher. The war in Ukraine and the 8th Cybersecurity Forum in Brussels brought this urgency to the forefront, uniting leaders from across Europe’s energy, technology, and cybersecurity sectors to discuss one central question: how do we keep the lights on in an era of digital warfare?
Legislation Isn’t Enough
Speakers from ENISA and the European Commission emphasized that cyber-resilience must move from policy to practice. But legislation alone isn’t enough. Implementation requires cross-sector coordination, real-time threat visibility, and shared intelligence between regulators, operators, and vendors.
What happens if this isn’t addressed? Ukraine’s National Cybersecurity Coordination Center presented sobering insights on cyber-enabled warfare, showing how attacks on power grids can ripple far beyond outages – undermining trust, destabilizing institutions, and even shaping public opinion. The 2015 Black Energy incident was a warning shot. The ongoing war shows the consequences of failing to integrate cybersecurity into the fabric of national infrastructure.
It’s Not Just Major, Centralized Infrastructure Either
Additionally, one of the most striking demonstrations came from the European Network for Cyber Security, showing how vulnerabilities in everyday IoT energy devices could be weaponized at scale. Think about EV chargers, home batteries, PV inverters, various devices for personal solar panels, and whatever comes next. By 2030, these devices will represent hundreds of gigawatts of controllable capacity. Without security-by-design, every household connection becomes a potential new attack surface.