Based on the risk profile, risk threat matrix, and ELITE results from previous steps, your team should have a solid understanding of the risks to your industry. The team should now develop the Cyber Sector Risk Profile, a culmination of your research of risks and defense strategies in your sector. In this profile, provide a cybersecurity analysis of your industry sector. Combine this information with the risk profile and risk threat matrix from prior steps to create this comprehensive profile

DTL Power Cyber Sector Risk Profile

In the risk profile report, the primary targets for cybercriminals are Australia’s DTL power and the United States federal government. DTL specializes in electricity generation and making various industrial dampers whose application in the power generation companies is vast. In contrast, the U.S. federal government is an essential entity that ensures the proper running of socioeconomic and political aspects of the United States. Collapsing DTL Power services has severe implications for businesses and critical systems that rely on electricity to run while targeting the federal government, which risks the release of valuable and highly sensitive information to the US’s enemies or the encryption of important data for ransom. Therefore, cybersecurity personnel must create stringent policies and implement them to protect against illegal access and tampering with user information. Various governments have created such policies globally to prevent specific cyber events such as hacking and fraud, the collapse of business service provision contributing to massive financial losses, and the creation of mitigation policies that aim at business continuity. Cybersecurity policies advocate for the appropriate and professional behavior of information technologists, a critical component of cybersecurity. Assessment of DTL power’s vulnerabilities gives insight into the design of holistic profiles for computing systems and protects them from cyber threats. This report will, in the subsequent sections, detail possible cyber risks and discuss appropriate defense strategies.

Cyber Security Profile

The establishment of a cybersecurity profile is a procedure that requires keen consideration of certain industry information, systems, and their sensitivity. Typical factors assessed when creating a cybersecurity profile include security controls, incident handling measures, and reputational, technical, and legal restrictions that may build toward an information security breach. Notably, DTL Power has implemented mandatory security policies proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). The scope of CIP regulations includes recovery plans for bulk electric systems (BES), vulnerability assessment, configuration change management, BES–System Categorization, security management controls, recovery plans, incident response and reporting, BES cyber system’s physical security, electronic security perimeter, information protection, and personnel and training (“Energy.gov,” 2016). There also exist voluntary cybersecurity policies considered by DTL power. These include strategies documented in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. This focused framework identifies standards, guidelines, and practices designed for organizations of any size to implement cybersecurity practices (Stine et al., 2020). The NIST Framework’s process encourages organizations to inventory their cybersecurity posture, after actions then allow them to make necessary adjustments based on these risk-based findings. However, there are some utilities that operate under different jurisdictions, which require the use of cybersecurity policies that are not regulated by NERC. In such a case, there are provisions that mandate DTL Power to adopt proper cyber-incident response plans, secure meter technology, and Federal NERC CIP policies.

Risks and Defense Strategies

There were three top cybersecurity risks identified: insider threats, state-sponsored actors, and cybercriminals, while the main threat vectors identified include viruses, malware, malicious insiders, threats and damage to critical systems, phishing, and ransomware attacks. An insider threat is defined as an employee, former employee, contractor, or business associate (Skelton, 2017). Specifically, these people usually have inside information about an organization’s computer systems, data, and security practices. These malicious acts can be astronomical if conducted by authorized users with elevated permissions, such as Executives, Senior Managers, and System Administrators. Contrarily, state actors act on behalf of a country’s government to obtain sensitive information from non-allies (Skelton, 2017). Cybercriminals operate in a non-sanctioned environment and range from amateurs to professionals; most notably, the ones that cause the most harm are hacktivists, criminal hackers, and black hat hackers. A foreign nation does not employ cybercriminals.

Insider threats risk exposure of classified material, power plants, SCADA systems, and intellectual property. The most effective defense strategy is monitoring corporate and