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What’s happening: Battery energy storage systems (BESS), which store electrical energy in a battery system so it can be used later when needed, are experiencing rapid growth due to their ability to integrate with renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

Aon recently recommended asset owners and operators in the BESS market enhance their cyber resilience against emerging cyber threats that identify operational technologies used in BESS control systems as an invisible point of vulnerability. Read more in Global [Re]Insurance.

According to Andrew Hainault, managing director, EMEA – security advisory at Aon, “In our experience, cyber security for OT is playing catch-up with information technology (IT). We see examples of clients who have relatively mature cyber security programmes for IT, with corresponding control frameworks that are established and measured, yet have noticeable control gaps for OT. Indeed, OT environments often fall outside the remit of IT and consequently are invisible when it comes to enterprise cyber risk management. To make matters worse, manufacturers are generally not conversant with secure development lifecycles and therefore continue to deploy systems that are not properly hardened for internet-accessible environments."

According to Aon, BESS asset owners should take steps to continually assess, mitigate and transfer their risks to ensure that they are better placed to access insurance cover and maintain business continuity both in preparation for and in the event of a cyber attack on their IT or operational technologies (OT) systems. Read more in Reinsurance News.

Tune into Aon’s podcast, “On Aon,” episode 37 for a discussion on cyber threat hunting as cyber attacks continue to be more frequent, damaging and costly to organizations.