Energy Internet Construction Faces Security Challenges

By 2020, 5G networks are expected to connect 7 trillion devices, 50 billion bytes of data, and 80% of key business processes. In the era of energy internet, any small security vulnerability may cause a large number of wind farms and photovoltaic power plants to collapse, or auto-driving electric vehicles to change their routes. It is urgent to promote the capacity building of energy data security monitoring and protection.

4G changes life and 5G changes society. 5G technology is accelerating the Internet to enter the second half, namely the industrial Internet, and energy Internet will be one of the most important application areas of the industrial Internet. At the 2009 C3 Security Summit held recently, experts said that in the era of energy Internet relying on 5G technology, with the explosion of smart terminal devices, network security issues will become more prominent. Any Minor security loophole may cause a large number of wind and photovoltaic power plants to collapse, or the automatic driving electric vehicles to change their routes, thus causing significant risks to production and life. 

The data show that by the end of the first quarter of this year, China's wind power installed has reached 189 million kilowatts, and photovoltaic power installed has reached 180 million kilowatts.

The industry believes that with the rapid growth of wind power, solar energy and other new energy generation, energy system is transforming into the era of fragmented energy, and fragmented energy will exist in the form of interconnection of all things, high intelligence and maximize its value. It is also based on this trend of energy change that the State Grid Corporation put forward a grand blueprint for building a ubiquitous power Internet of Things. The so-called smart energy is a new mode and new format formed by the deep integration of energy utilization technology, artificial intelligence and big data technology. It is the basic structure of energy internet. Intelligent energy not only realizes the complementary functions of wind power and solar energy, but also realizes the integration of power network, thermal network, fuel network and transportation network. Chen Xuehong, deputy director of Safeguard Technology Institute of National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, believes that intelligent energy will generate a lot of data in production, transmission, storage, trading, operation and maintenance, consumption and other links. It is imminent to promote the capacity-building of data security monitoring and protection.

Energy Internet depends on 5G technology

The industry believes that in the era of industrial Internet represented by energy Internet, informatization is opening an intelligent stage characterized by deep data mining and integration application, which is also consistent with the background of building "Digital China".

Internet only connects 7 billion people, and 5G will support industrial Internet, which will not only realize the interconnection of all things, but also achieve the interconnection of all things. By 2020, 5G networks are expected to connect 7 trillion devices, 50 billion bytes of data, and 80% of key business processes.

Tian Shuning, chairman of AsiaInfo Group, drew an analogy: "If the cloud image of the brain, 5G is the nervous system. 5G achieves the connection from human connectors to knowledge connectors and then to business processes. That is to say, the opening of 5G era will really open the first year of industrial Internet.

According to the introduction, 5G technology is the infrastructure of industrial Internet, and cloud network integration is the most important feature of 5G era. IT (Information Technology), OT (Operational Technology) and CT (Communication Technology) will achieve a deep integration with ST (Security Technology, Network Security Technology). After realizing the connection of all things, the 5G characteristics such as openness and cloud integration also make the network security problem more prominent. At present, China Mobile is carrying out innovative applications of 5G in nine fields, including energy, intelligent transportation, etc. China Mobile's 5G Joint Venture Center has 500 + cross-industry partners, 22 open laboratories and 5 major industry alliances. Gao Kunlun, director of the Institute of Computing and Applications of Global Energy Internet Research Institute, said that under the background of energy Internet, multi-energy complementarity, high integration of energy flow, information flow and business flow, intelligence, automation and networking are its main characteristics. With the development trend of ubiquitous power Internet of Things technology, the types and structures of terminals are becoming more and more complex, the network is becoming more and more open, the business is becoming more and more integrated, and the security immunity of terminals, edges and clouds is needed more and more.

With the access of mass devices and extensive connection between objects, in the 5G era, the security of energy Internet and other types of industrial Internet is more urgent than that of 3G and 4G era.

In this regard, Jon France, a security expert in GSMA industry, said: "With the continuous expansion of the network, the attack area is also expanding, benefiting from the development of 5G and other network technologies, by 2025, the number of Internet of Things equipment access may reach 25 billion, these massive network equipment will introduce a large number of hacker attacks, resulting in leakage of enterprise data, resulting in losses of up to a few per year. Billions of dollars. In the 5G era, the key security challenges include virtualization of network functions, densification and physical security, supervision and CNI, data storage and privacy protection, supply chain and operation. We need to follow the principles of design security, deployment security and operation security to carry out network security protection practice. Without security, there will be no integration and innovation of energy Internet IT technology, and the deepening of digital transformation, all of which reflect that the global network security ecosystem is undergoing profound changes. The same is true in the field of energy.