AES Corporation, Atos and Enel join Siemens and the eight founding members of the first joint charter for greater cybersecurity. The three newest members announced their partnership at the 2018 CERAWeek conference in Houston, TX.
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that America’s electricity infrastructure was in “imminent danger” from cyberattacks that are “growing more frequent and sophisticated.” And, according to a recent report from the Council of Economic Advisors, malicious cyber activity against government and industry cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016 – approximately one-half of U.S. GDP.
The Charter of Trust is a cybersecurity initiative that establishes three primary goals: to protect the data of individuals and businesses; to prevent harm to people, businesses, and infrastructure; and to establish a reliable basis where confidence in a networked, digital world can take root and grow.
The Charter of Trust was announced at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in February, and signed by a group of founding companies, including Airbus, Allianz, Daimler Group, IBM, MSC, NXP, SGS and Deutsche Telekom, who called for binding rules and standards to ensure greater digital security and integrity in both the public and private sectors.
“Cybersecurity is the most important security issue of our time,” said Joe Kaeser, CEO, Siemens AG. “Siemens is working with key partners in industry, government and society to promote the Charter of Trust to make our digital world more secure. The transformational opportunities that exist for society and industry can only be realized if we all have confidence in, and can rely on the security of our data and connected systems.”
A study of the U.S. oil and gas industry by Ponemon Institute found that operational technology (OT) cyberattacks now comprise 30 percent of all attacks in the U.S. oil and gas industry.
The Charter outlines ten principles to ensure companies and governments are taking action to address cybersecurity at the highest levels through a dedicated cybersecurity ministry in government and a chief information security officer at companies. It calls for mandatory, independent certification for critical infrastructure where lives are at risk, including in the oil and gas, and power generation and distribution industries, and digital applications across all aspects of IoT. The Charter’s signatories are also looking for greater efforts to encourage cybersecurity in vocational training and in international initiatives.
