OSCE organizes risk assessment and crisis management exercise in Slovakia on protecting critical energy infrastructure from terrorist attacks

A national table top exercise focusing on preparedness and protection of non-nuclear critical energy infrastructure against IT-based terrorist attacks concluded on 13 September 2017 in Bratislava.

Organized by the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, the exercise gathered twenty-six national experts from different state authorities and energy sector representatives to discuss and test the effectiveness of existing protection and crisis management systems to mitigate the impact of a cyber-attack on their industrial control systems. The simulation also sought to further improve partnerships between the public and private sectors in order to increase the resilience of the national energy infrastructure.

“Research has indicated that terrorist attacks against critical infrastructure through the internet are becoming a preferred modus operandi,” said Koen De Smedt, Assistant Programme Officer at the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, who addressed the national cyber and energy experts at the opening of the exercise. “This exercise provides the national energy sector with a hands-on experience of the vulnerabilities of non-nuclear critical energy infrastructure and the possible consequences that a terrorist cyber-attack might have.”

The training exercise was developed by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and builds upon the recommendations of its Good Practices Guide on Non-Nuclear Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection from Terrorist Attacks Focusing on Threats Emanating from Cyberspace.