Sårbarhet i kraftforsyningens drifts- og styringssystemer

Abstract

This report presents a short overview of the results from the study of the vulnerability of the information systems in the Norwegian electric power system to physical, electromagnetic and logical threats. Generally, centralised management, with remote control of generation and distribution of power, is performed from system control centers. The operations are supported by SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems. The study shows that the information systems are vulnerable to a multitude of physical, electromagnetic and logical threats, both natural and man-made. Thus, computer failure may lead to short-term local disruptions in the power supply. However, to achieve long-term outages, simultaneous attacks have to be executed at the power infrastructure and at the information systems. The report contains a scenario, describing the growing dependency on information systems until 2010. A possible large-scale implementation of electronic components in the grid, increased dependency on centralised management and a predicted shortness of skilled personell are key factors in this scenario. This may lead to a more unreliable and vulnerable power system, prone to frequent failures and disruptions.