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There actually is a call to the energy sector and other federal research labs to find solutions and design technologies specifically for the energy sector to purchase when they are mature. The areas they are looking for solutions include the renewable energies, cryptographic key management, cloud use, detecting cyber-attacks on hardware, and they are open to other ideas (DOE, 2015).

Do you think that these solutions will be developed and acquired before a major attack on our energy grid? I am not so sure they will, the process is not a fast one. It takes years to develop a technology and harden it enough to pass all the rigorous testing needed to be blessed by the government for purchase.

Foreign countries like China and Russia have already taken down our electrical grid in several states for hours at a time, just to see if they could. Our outdated technology is not cyber safe and must be updated, however it is privatized, and many publicly traded private electrical providers/companies do not want to spend shareholder profits on software upgrades.

References

DOE. (2015). Research Call To DOE/Federal Labs RC-CEDS-2015. Retrieved from DOE: http://www.netl.doe.gov/business/solicitations/details?title=5ed8702c-fda9-4e84-be1d-81f51c3cab44