On 2nd November 2015 experts from academia and industry from different European countries had the opportunity to discuss about new approaches towards the security and risk assessment for utility providers in a very fruitful workshop hosted by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and the HyRiM project consortium.
The approaches presented at the workshop have been developed in the course of current research activities of three major European Union projects in the FP7 and the CIPS programme; i.e. HyRiM, SPARKS and MEDUSA. These projects are covering specific issues in connection with utility providers and utility networks in general, and specifically in areas of smart grids and the port’s supply chain. Therein, a major focus is laid on the identification and assessment of cascading effects, as well as the assessment and mitigation of cyber-attacks in utility networks and smart grids.
Except of the presentations, the participants had the opportunity to discuss with a panel consisting of academia and industry experts about future challenges and potential threats in connection with utility providers and critical infrastructures. One major issue was the importance of organisational aspects and the human factor for the security and risk management.
During the workshop and the official dinner the attendees had the chance to exchange further ideas and discuss possible future collaborations among research projects in order to bring risk and security management on a higher level.
For additional information about the projects please visit the following webpages: