“Hackers are threatening the power supply”

German energy providers have insufficient IT security against cyber attacks which could lead to large power blackouts, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. Many providers lacked “contingency plans” for attacks by hackers and did not have a properly structured IT-crisis management, IT-security adviser Oliver Neumann told the newspaper. “Many energy providers’ appreciation of IT-security is not as developed as it should be at,” he added. The decentralised and digitally coordinated power supply structure associated with energy transition only made matters worse, FAZ explains. The German government recently passed a law allowing federal IT-security experts to help providers in case of an attack but it will take some time to ensure that emergency plans are applicable throughout the country, the newspaper warns.

Read the article in German here (behind paywall).

For background on Germany’s decentralised power production, read the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s power grid.