Parliament Informed For Cyber Security Preparedness of Powergrid

The National Power Grid comprises of a large number of assets established across the country. Interconnectedness is a key feature of the networked world and cyber opportunities and threats are part of it. For curbing the cyber threats over the national power grid, multiple steps have been taken.

Set of information was provided by Union Minister of State (IC) Power, New & Renewable Energy and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri R.K. Singh, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

For securing transmission assets of POWERGRID, communication from the equipment of Substations to control centers are done over a dedicated optical fiber network owned by POWERGRID without any connectivity to external networks. They are further protected through multiple Firewalls. These systems are kept isolated from office networks, to prevent any malicious online attack because of Internet connectivity. Also, POWERGRID is certified for ISO27001 Information Security Management System as laid down in Information Technology Act, 2000.  Further, Ministry of Power has formed Sectoral CERT-Transmission housed in POWERGRID, which works in close coordination with Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and which has laid down  detail procedures for Protected Systems, alerts and advisories, regular cyber audit, Crisis Management Plan (CMP), mock drills and exercises.