June 5, 2025 • 4 mins
Did you know that 62% of utility operators were targeted by cyberattacks in the last year? Most more than once. Cyber Security Expert and CEO of Sentriqs Damien Fortune joins us to detail how we are trying to stay ahead of the bad guys.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Read that statistic again because it just shocked me when
I saw it yesterday. Sixty two percent of utility operators
were targeted by cyber attacks in the last year, and
eighty percent of them the vast majority of them more
than once. This is West Michigan's Morning News Steve Kelly
and read Keita. Cybersecurity expert and CEO of Centrics is
(00:21):
Damien Fortune on the liveline. Damian, thanks for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Than you guys, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So we take training classes here with our company about
being the weakest link. We hope that an awful lot
of those utility companies are doing the same thing too.
So how what is the form of these cyber attacks
and how prepared are we?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm woefully underprepared. I'll answer the second question first. I mean,
does the attacks come in from every angle. It's everything
from you know, the stuff that you get training about
don't click on links from people that you don't recognize,
or open text messages from people that whose numbers you
don't have on your phone, to embedding software within the
controllers on solar panels. So you know, these folks are
(01:05):
trying to get in any way that they can and.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Is it just disruption? Is there have we come close to?
I mean, what's a worst case scenario? Is it taking
stuff offline? I mean we haven't heard about people throwing
stuff in water tanks.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yet, right, Yeah, I mean that's kind of the fear
here is that, you know, if things were to escalate
with one of our adversarial nations, who are generally behind
most of these cyber attacks, is that you could essentially
end the war before it started if you crippled our
water and power infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So how much I mean, it's a tough economy out
there too, as we continue to rebound. How much your
budget cuts, for instance, at a municipality coming into play
big time?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Is the short part of it. I mean, a lot
of the cyber defense work, a lot of the work
that's done to screen employees from a cyber perspective to
check this equipment that's brought in to see if there's
any kind of bad hardware that's been installed on them.
Those things actually happen outside of the utilities in government
backed programs at NGOs, So a lot of those programs
(02:08):
are getting cut.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Damian. I'm gonna go old school reference here with a
movie that I remember watching when I was a kid
growing up, and it makes me think of this situation.
Do you remember the movie War Games and three DEFCN four?
To Steve's point earlier, would we as the US public
even know if we got to a very serious point,
(02:29):
like would they share that information with us?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Potentially? What we've seen is the bad guys actually every
now and then do test the efficacy of these embedded softwares.
You'll see reports of there was a utility last year
in Guam that was taken offline for twenty four hours.
Hospitals and water plants here in the US have had
disruptions over the last year or so that have been
the link to cyber intrusion. So those are likely going
(02:54):
to be the flare ups that we see. Outside of that,
I doubt we'll see a ton in the news.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Are we learning? Are we? I guess we asked if
we're doing enough? But are we learning? If something? Because
we've always said, you know, they're not going to fly
planes and buildings anymore, they're going to find new ways
to do stuff. Right. We're getting smarter, aren't we, he said, hopingly?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, we are. I mean we're fighting the good fight
as fast as we can and ramping folks up. Unfortunately,
you know, it's an arms race, so as we get smarter.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So today, all right, I don't know if I feel better.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I guess that's the last question. Exactly what more should
we take away from this pretty frightening study to help
us sleep at night the next time we go get
a glass of water.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The big thing is that there are people with their
eyes on it. I mean, there are tons of good
NGOs out there that are trying to fight this problem
and continue to push for funding even in these bad
but scenarios to make sure that that happens.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Oh helpful are those little pumps that you can put
in a creek and make a glass of water. Those
things advertising I strike the question because we're out of time.
Cybersecurity expert CEO of Centrix, Damien Fortune, a pleasure. Thanks
for your time today.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Thanks so much, guys, Take care
Read that statistic again because it just shocked me when
I saw it yesterday. Sixty two percent of utility operators
were targeted by cyber attacks in the last year, and
eighty percent of them the vast majority of them more
than once. This is West Michigan's Morning News Steve Kelly
and read Keita. Cybersecurity expert and CEO of Centrics is
(00:21):
Damien Fortune on the liveline. Damian, thanks for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Than you guys, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So we take training classes here with our company about
being the weakest link. We hope that an awful lot
of those utility companies are doing the same thing too.
So how what is the form of these cyber attacks
and how prepared are we?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm woefully underprepared. I'll answer the second question first. I mean,
does the attacks come in from every angle. It's everything
from you know, the stuff that you get training about
don't click on links from people that you don't recognize,
or open text messages from people that whose numbers you
don't have on your phone, to embedding software within the
controllers on solar panels. So you know, these folks are
(01:05):
trying to get in any way that they can and.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Is it just disruption? Is there have we come close to?
I mean, what's a worst case scenario? Is it taking
stuff offline? I mean we haven't heard about people throwing
stuff in water tanks.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yet, right, Yeah, I mean that's kind of the fear
here is that, you know, if things were to escalate
with one of our adversarial nations, who are generally behind
most of these cyber attacks, is that you could essentially
end the war before it started if you crippled our
water and power infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So how much I mean, it's a tough economy out
there too, as we continue to rebound. How much your
budget cuts, for instance, at a municipality coming into play
big time?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Is the short part of it. I mean, a lot
of the cyber defense work, a lot of the work
that's done to screen employees from a cyber perspective to
check this equipment that's brought in to see if there's
any kind of bad hardware that's been installed on them.
Those things actually happen outside of the utilities in government
backed programs at NGOs, So a lot of those programs
(02:08):
are getting cut.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Damian. I'm gonna go old school reference here with a
movie that I remember watching when I was a kid
growing up, and it makes me think of this situation.
Do you remember the movie War Games and three DEFCN four?
To Steve's point earlier, would we as the US public
even know if we got to a very serious point,
(02:29):
like would they share that information with us?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Potentially? What we've seen is the bad guys actually every
now and then do test the efficacy of these embedded softwares.
You'll see reports of there was a utility last year
in Guam that was taken offline for twenty four hours.
Hospitals and water plants here in the US have had
disruptions over the last year or so that have been
the link to cyber intrusion. So those are likely going
(02:54):
to be the flare ups that we see. Outside of that,
I doubt we'll see a ton in the news.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Are we learning? Are we? I guess we asked if
we're doing enough? But are we learning? If something? Because
we've always said, you know, they're not going to fly
planes and buildings anymore, they're going to find new ways
to do stuff. Right. We're getting smarter, aren't we, he said, hopingly?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, we are. I mean we're fighting the good fight
as fast as we can and ramping folks up. Unfortunately,
you know, it's an arms race, so as we get smarter.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So today, all right, I don't know if I feel better.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I guess that's the last question. Exactly what more should
we take away from this pretty frightening study to help
us sleep at night the next time we go get
a glass of water.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The big thing is that there are people with their
eyes on it. I mean, there are tons of good
NGOs out there that are trying to fight this problem
and continue to push for funding even in these bad
but scenarios to make sure that that happens.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Oh helpful are those little pumps that you can put
in a creek and make a glass of water. Those
things advertising I strike the question because we're out of time.
Cybersecurity expert CEO of Centrix, Damien Fortune, a pleasure. Thanks
for your time today.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Thanks so much, guys, Take care
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