Since its inception, the EnergyPact Foundation has engaged the international energy community through activities aimed at raising the global awareness on issues related to energy development and sustainability. These activities have included coordination and sponsorship of multiple international conferences for information exchange and confidence building.

The EnergyPact Foundation intends to further focus its efforts by addressing energy and cyber security, including through the establishment in Vienna of an annual platform of dialogue and international co-operation on the subject. This platform aims to bring together decision makers, political and industry leaders, experts, international organisations and NGO’s.

The inaugural multi-stakeholder conference in Vienna, “Cyberspace, Energy & Development: Protecting Critical Energy Infrastructures”, which will take place on February 16, 2017, will be hosted by the National Defence Academy, co-organised by the EnergyPact Foundation with the Austrian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence, the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, the CSP Austrian Cybersecurity Platform and supported by international organizations.

The inaugural multistakeholder conference will be immediately followed on February 17, 2017 by an international business high level panel, dedicated to ceo’s of large corporations «  Digital Security:  Protecting Strategic Business Leadership »  also hosted by the National Defence Academy.

Industrial Control systems (ICS) are computer-based systems that support operational processes, safety, and security functions for the industrial sector and critical infrastructure. Due to their pivotal operational role, ICS are becoming a preferred target for cyber-attacks.

In 2018, in collaboration with Austrian governmental, industrial and academic partners, the EnergyPact Foundation will establish the Industrial Control Systems Security Centre (ICS Security Centre) in Vienna, Austria.

The ICS Security Centre is envisioned as an international resource for use by governmental, non-governmental, and industry organisations for collaborative research, hands-on training, and information exchange regarding the security of industrial control systems used in the energy sector for safety, security and operations. Key security focus areas include oil and gas production, nuclear power plants and associated facilities, renewables, and electricity delivery infrastructures. Also, the Centre will have regional satellite offices and activities to address regional energy needs.

The ICS Security Centre will have a number of operational elements to serve the energy community ranging from laboratory facilities to support security research and hands-on training to accommodations for resident researchers, visiting scientists and interns from the international community.

The lack of computer security professionals increasingly has become a pressing issue for all industry sectors, whereas the energy sector is further challenged to find security experts that understand the industrial control environment and the operational parameters specific to the energy sector.

One of the core purposes of the Centre is improving information technology security awareness and capacity building for the management and operational personnel within the energy sector. The EnergyPact Foundation will implement a series of professional training courses and workshops that seek to heighten cyber security awareness, enhance cyber security skills of the current workforce and promote new cyber security professionals within the energy and ICS community.

The industrial control systems that support energy production, transmission, distribution and ultimately end-use represent complex, intertwined computer-based systems and networks merging state-of-the-art technologies with legacy systems. Implementing cyber security for these systems is extremely challenging. Research is needed across multiple operational areas, and includes the development of methodologies to determine and assess their security and associated risks, the development of protective measures for both new and legacy systems, the detection of cyber-attacks as well as the monitoring of system resilience.

The EnergyPact Foundation with its strategic partner, the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, will implement a research agenda in order to investigate some of the challenging research areas facing ICS in the energy sector. Many States are developing research facilities within their respective national laboratory complexes and within academia. The EnergyPact Foundation seeks to collaborate with such entities as well as developing active partnerships with a number of industrial sectors by creating an international research and information sharing centre that addresses development and security challenges surrounding sustainable energy deployment.

The results of the research will be used to enhance the security of industrial control systems, but will also be used to strengthen the ICS Security Centre’s training and education programme.