IT Trends & Technology

From smart grids to smart meters, technology is transforming the way the utility industry does business. IT is being used to enhance operational processes and customer experience in a digital age where information security is trying to keep up with big data. To get an idea of the scope of data being collected, one only needs to look as far as the smart meters utilized by households. A single household smart meter can generate 400 megabytes per year. If you multiply that by 135 million smart meters in the United States, it equates to 54 petabytes, or a little more than half of the data uploaded to YouTube in a year. This data must be stored somewhere that is secure, so that if and when disaster strikes, it is protected.

Today’s Chief Information Security Officer, or CISO, is having a stronger and more strategic role in organizations due to more cyber threats, compliance standards, connected devices and stored data than ever before. However, according to a study done earlier this year by PricewaterhouseCoopers, almost half of average companies today don’t have a C-level security executive in place. Now is the time for organizations to evaluate their risk posture and invest in an information security team that can adopt a strong cybersecurity culture that aligns with their strategic business goals.

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Company leaders worldwide are taking measures to ensure they will be in compliance with a new and far-reaching law aimed at protecting European citizens from privacy and data breaches. General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), a data privacy law adopted by the European Union taking effect May 25, 2018, is one of the largest changes in data protection and privacy regulations. GDPR builds upon existing principals set forth in the Data Protection Act and puts tighter obligations and restrictions on data controllers and data processors.