How the U.S. Nuclear Industry Is Countering Cyber-Threats

Today in Vienna, the Nuclear Threat Initiative released a report on cyber security at nuclear energy facilities.

While we've yet to have the chance to review the research in depth, it's important to note that efforts to address cyber security at nuclear facilities got underway in earnest shortly after the 9-11 attacks in September 2001, when an industry task force to address the issue was formed that exists to this day. As of the end of 2012, working at the behest of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, every U.S. nuclear plant had implemented a raft of programs to address a wide variety of cyber-threats.

So how do those programs measure up? In October 2015, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published an unclassified version of a report that analyzed cyber security in the broader U.S. nuclear sector, including radioactive materials and waste facilities. The report concluded that the sector's programs, “combined with the industry’s exacting standards and culture of back-up safety systems, will make it extremely difficult for an external adversary to cause a radioactive release.”

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