March 2016
President Obama Signs Two New Cybersecurity Laws; FERC, Congress Take Aim at Cybersecurity Risks in the Electric Utility Sector
Pratt's Energy Law Report
A new law gives the President and the U.S. Secretary of Energy emergency powers over the electric sector in a grid security emergency and seeks to increase cyber information sharing to better protect all sectors including the energy sector. In addition, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to address cybersecurity concerns involving the electric grid, specifically the risk of malicious software being introduced into industrial control systems, software, and network services prior to their delivery to the customer. The authors of this article discuss these developments.