The Key Players in Global Smart Grid Cyber Security Market 2016-2020

Monday 5 September 2016, Amsterdam

The report, now available on ASDReports, recognizes the following companies as the key players in the global smart grid cyber security market: BAE Systems, IBM, IOActive, and Lockheed Martin.

Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: AlertEnterprise, AlienVault, Black and Veatch, Cisco, McAfee-Intel, Elster, Entergy Services, HP? N-Dimension Solutions, Siemens? Sophos, Sourcefire, Symantec, and ViaSat.

Commenting on the report, an analyst said: “Many vendors such as Elster, IBM, and eMeter offer cloud-based smart grid solutions. Many organizations have been able to cut costs and centralize their resources because of availing cloud-based services. Consequently, there has been an increase in the number of utilities adopting cloud-based services. Many European-based utilities have been availing cloud-based services from smart grid vendors. However, with an increase in the adoption of cloud-based services, there is also a concomitant increase in the security threats to the cloud infrastructure. Cloud-based applications are hosted on the Web, which makes these applications more vulnerable compared with the traditional on-premises solutions. As a consequence to this growing trend of cloud-based technology adoption, many security firms started providing services to protect the smart grids from cyber-attacks.”

According to the report, one of the key drivers for market growth will be compliance with government and regulatory standards. The power grid is an easy target for adversaries who would seek to cause significant physical, economic, and psychological harm, to a nation. This is because a nation’s grid is operated by various regional utilities that are also interconnected through a smart grid, which is essential for maintaining a stable and reliable power system. When compared to a traditional grid, the smart grid is highly dependent on IT and communication systems for its operation, which makes the smart grid a target for adversaries. This, in turn, has also increased the number of new vulnerabilities in the smart grid.

Further, the report states that consequent to the overall lack of standardization within the grid network, the gap of interoperability among power systems widened. Smart grids include many systems that are intertwined and connected to the main server. The disparity that this system integration creates between networking systems is wide-ranging and affects the overall functionality of the grid. Utilities are yet to deploy systems that are interoperable. Thus, implementing security standards within diverse networking systems is a serious challenge faced by the utilities. Authorities could resolve this complexity by enforcing standardized security practices that can be applied to utilities.

The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors.