Present Danger: Cyber Attacks On Power Grids

Uploaded on 2025-05-06 in GOVERNMENT-National, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Production-Energy

The uncomfortable reality is that cyber attacks have doubled between 2020 and 2022 in the energy sector. Indeed, there were 48 successful attacks hitting Europe’s energy infrastructure in 2022 alone - which is is why cyber security has become a key component of ensuring overall energy security.

In particular, cyber security experts in the Netherlands have been closely monitoring the major power outage affecting Spain and Portugal and are raising pressing concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure.

Following the very large-scale and prolonged power outage which affected large parts of Spain and Portugal, including major cities like Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon, the government authorities in both countries are urgently investigating the cause.

Now, the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is advising citizens to prepare for the possibility of similar future disruptions in the Netherlands.

Initially, there were fears that a cyber attack could be behind the widespread disruptions in Portugal and Spain, however, Spain's grid operator currently does not think that the outage was caused by a cyber attack, although that is in dispute. While the Spanish authorities have attributed the outage to weather-related factors, experts in the Netherlands have warned that similar issues with critical infrastructure could indeed be caused by cyber attacks.

In comment, the CEO of ESET, Dave Maasland, said "At this stage, very little is confirmed, and attacks on critical infrastructure at this scale remain rare. That’s why it's important to wait for official updates. In some cases, the fear of a cyberattack can itself be a tactic by adversaries to incite panic and confusion. Human error and technical failures without any cyber component remain possible explanations"

There have been other cyber attacks on power grids, including numerous attacks by Russian hackers that have disabled power systems in western Ukraine. Now, the Red Cross in the Netherlands is reported to have echoed the NCSC’s advice, suggesting that even short-term power outages could lead to widespread disruption and even social unrest.

Image: Ideogram

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