Mr Anjos Nijk
Managing Director , European Network for Cyber Security ( ENCS )
Anjos Nijk is Managing Director of the European Network for Cyber security ( ENCS ). In addition to his duties with ENCS , he is a member of the Steering Committee of the Smart Grids Task Force of the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy , member of the Cyber Security Expert Group and ENCS liaison with European associations including EDSO , ENTSO-E and EUTC . He started his career in the telecommunications industry where he worked for 12 years in various international management functions at AT & T and Lucent Technologies . In 2003 he was involved in the start-up Dartagnan biometric solutions , a joint venture of Schiphol Group and Royal Johan Enschede , providing highend biometric security solutions for border passage and security management . He participated in Dialogs Unlimited , an innovative software company providing cloud services to public service companies from 2008 and joined ENCS in July 2012 . Anjos graduated in Technische Bedrijfskunde ( Business Administration and Informatics ) at Universiteit Twente , The Netherlands .
" Developments and priorities in Europe ' s grid cybersecurity "
Three targeted cyber-attacks on European energy grid organizations were reported in recent months . While none of the incidents seems to have affected critical systems used to operate the energy grid , they do show that the Energy sector is vulnerable and being targeted . The COVID-19 outbreak further increases the risks . Many employees of grid organizations are now working remotely . This all underscores the urgency to accelerate capacity building in the European grid .
The European Commission has prioritized the drafting of the cybersecurity network code and has given short delivery deadlines to the drafting team that started in February .
Yet , government regulations will not be able to keep up with the development of threats . Continued and increased effort of implementing security measures by infrastructure owners is needed .
Using the ENCS security requirements for smart metering , distribution automation , and substation automation in procurement and testing systems and components before they get deployed is already standard practice of many ENCS members and we strongly recommend all European infrastructure owners to do so . With the projects on electric vehicle charging and distributed energy resources ( DER ), ENCS is now also making such requirements available to other stakeholders critical for the stability of the electricity grid .