A critical review of cyber security and cyber terrorism - threats to critical infrastructure in the energy sector

The rapid change in communication technology in the form of connections, integration, supply chain management that are essential and part of critical infrastructure, has brought out new security challenges. As a result securing critical data, operations, consumer profile and data is beyond the four walls of physical security. Therefore, it is critical to enhance security. Since, electric power systems are comprised of both IT and power, their interdependence has resulted in gaps in the security. Though the cyber threats cannot be eliminated, it can only be mitigated and its impact reduced. The threat mitigation costs money, efforts, downtime, economic and psychological impacts on the industry that could result in damage to company's performance and the national economies. The paper aims to highlight various security attacks on the energy infrastructure and its impacts. While discussing the impacts, the paper presents mechanism and emphasises the need for global security coordination to mitigate threats.