In this Episode
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Host: Todd Snitchler, President and CEO, Electric Power Supply Association
Guest: Michael Ball, Senior Vice President, NERC, CEO, E-ISAC
In this episode of Energy Solutions, EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler sits down with Michael Ball, Senior Vice President of NERC and CEO of the E-ISAC to discuss today’s rapidly evolving grid security threats and how the industry is preparing.
Michael explains how AI is enabling more sophisticated and fast-moving cyberattacks and why physical incidents like vandalism, drone flights, and copper theft are serious threats to reliability. He also highlights the growing risks posed by domestic violent extremists and the advanced toolkits now targeting industrial control systems, as well as the importance of information sharing, collaboration across sectors, and hands-on readiness exercises through GridEx.
Topics include:
- How the cyber and physical threat landscape is evolving,
- The rise of AI-enabled attacks and physical security challenges,
- The role of the E-ISAC in information sharing and analysis,
- Key lessons from GridEx VIII and GridEx-in-a-Box,
- Why readiness, updated instant response playbooks, and resilient communication strategies matters,
- And how competitive power suppliers and utilities can improve their engagement with the E-ISAC.
Power Quote:
“Information sharing is key and I can’t underscore that enough. It’s cross-sector and thinking bigger than within the silo of our industry.”
MICHAEL BALL, CEO, E-ISAC
Key Takeaways
Cyber Threats Are Constant and Growing: The energy sector faces the same nonstop attacks as any business connected to the internet—but with extremely high stakes.
“We were tracking the number of blocked attempts to connect to networks. And we would see up to 6.5 billion attempts a day that were blocked. So, it’s a really scary world out there. And that is actually consistent with any business connected to the Internet.”
AI Is Accelerating Cyberattacks and Making Them Harder to Detect: Adversaries are using AI to create convincing phishing emails, gather intel, and even conduct near-autonomous attacks.
“We see AI enabled adversaries being able to optimize our abilities to launch attacks. We’re seeing really sophisticated social engineering phishing attacks. They’re based on a gathering of information about their intended target. And then we are seeing reports of almost autonomous attacks be using AI engines that require very little human interaction.”
Physical Threats Remain a Real and Growing Concern: Vandalism, drone activity, and copper theft continue to pose safety and reliability risks—especially in remote areas.
“We have assets in the field, a lot of them are very remote areas and very hard to protect. So, we see a lot of things like vandalism and copper theft that start to create a lot of public safety issues. Taking copper out of an alive and active substation creates a pretty significant threat to the public. We see activity around drones that are very hard to deal with in today’s environment.”
Information Sharing Is Critical: Coordination between sectors such as electric, natural gas, law enforcement, and government officials is essential to recognize patterns early, respond quickly, and reduce risk.
“Information sharing is key and I can’t underscore that enough. And it’s not just information sharing between the private sector and the government sector and those of us that work in between, but it’s cross sector and thinking bigger than within the silo of our industry. We have a lot of adjacent critical infrastructure that we depend on—natural gas, telecommunications—all these are part of the puzzle that needs to be put together and understood more effectively.”
GridEx Exercises Strengthen Real-World Readiness: Hands-on table-top exercises such as GridEx allow companies to stress-test decision-making, crisis communications, and response strategies before an actual crisis occurs.
“If you look across different industries, this becomes the electricity industry’s largest and most comprehensive security exercise. I think we’re going to be closer to 20,000 different participants across North America.”
Preparedness Is a Must and Needs to be Continuous: Having updated playbooks, resilient communications guides, and different communications techniques (P.A.C.E) helps companies respond effectively in a crisis.
“We need to be ready. And so does our industry.”
Producer: Christina Nyquist, senior director, communications, EPSA
Associate Producer, Audio Editor: Anna Varnell, associate, communications, EPSA
Music Composed by: Let Me Hold That, Ltd.
