Smart Grid Security: GAO Study Finds R&D Efforts Lacking

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A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study says Smart Grid cyber security R&D initiatives are missing critical components: a national-level agenda for R&D goals, leadership coordination and strategic direction, and a public/private R&D funding tracking and information sharing system. Without a coordinated national agenda, GAO says, agencies and private companies may be focusing on their own individual priorities at the expense of the most important national priorities. The study also notes that the Office of Science and Technology Policy's (OSTP) Subcommittee on Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD), a multi-agency coordinating body responsible for providing leadership in cyber security R&D, has not provided a "strategic direction." In addition, an earlier congressional directive to set up a government-wide repository that tracks active and completed federally backed R&D projects is nowhere to be found. Without such a central resource, GAO says, public and private researchers and developers have no access to that information and no effective channel to share with each other.

Quick Take: Failure to thoroughly coordinate public and private R&D efforts could be disastrous if no one's calling the shots and critical components of a cyber security system for the Smart Grid are missed. The bottom line from the GAO? The agencies charged with leadership and coordination aren't performing as they should be.

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