ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Tuesday hosted a webinar on “Implementation roadmap for NEPRA IT/OT Cybersecurity Regulations” with an aim to create awareness amongst the electric power distribution licensees for implementation of NEPRA IT/OT Cybersecurity regulations published in September, 2022 for compliance.

The webinar was led and addressed by Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef H Farooqi, followed by Kashan Saeed, Chief of Party, USAID (PSIA) , Dr Kashif Shahzad , CTO , PITC and Dr Basit Shafiq from LUMS.

The webinar was attended by a large number of Power Sector’s Professionals. Chairman NEPRA, in his address emphasized the significance of the webinar. He highlighted that with digitalization of electricity distribution sector where wind and solar micro grids are added on the supply side and Electric Vehicles (EVs) on the demand side, the power lines and smart meters that connects them, the cyber-attack surface of the electric power systems is greatly increased.

“We need a holistic strategy to safeguard our critical power infrastructure from these cyber threats. The effective strategy builds on collaborations of regulators, public sector organizations, public and private partnership is a key element in operating and protecting these critical infrastructures,” he added.

During the webinar, Kashan Saeed give an overview of the USAID Power Sector Improvement Activity Programme (PSIA) and the support provided to PITC in defining and implementing the cybersecurity policies and procedures. Dr Kashif Shahzad explained in detail about architecture of the End Point Detection and Response and functions of Deep Discover Inspector and Analyzer. He also informed that capacity building plan of DISCO’s staff is in pipeline and will be started shortly.

Dr Basit Shafiq explained about the power sector cybersecurity building blocks. He gave a detailed overview of the asset management, access control, network security, secure configuration and hardening policies. The webinar concluded after detailed questions and answers session of the participants with the Chairman and the speakers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023