Power & water utilities
Grids and water systems are the quiet backbone of national stability, and a preferred target for both cyber intrusion and physical attack. Control-system hardening, continuous cyber defence and counter-drone protection keep essential services running.
The backbone that cannot be allowed to fail
Electricity and water are the services a population notices only when they stop, and when they stop, the political and humanitarian cost is immediate. That makes utilities an attractive target: an adversary who can darken a grid or disrupt a treatment system achieves disproportionate effect without ever crossing a border. The distributed nature of the estate, from substations to pumping stations to treatment plants, means the exposure is everywhere at once and cannot be concentrated behind a single fence.
The dangerous feature of modern utilities is convergence. The operational-technology systems that switch power and move water were never designed for a contested network, yet they now sit within reach of it, and increasingly within reach of the airspace above unmanned fixed sites. A utility therefore faces a threat that can arrive as a network intrusion, as a drone over a substation, or as both in coordination. Its defence has to span the spectrum, the network and the air together.
Defending the estate across three vectors
Infrastructure hardening addresses the control estate directly, assessing and reducing the attack surface of the SCADA and safety systems behind generation, distribution and treatment so an intrusion cannot cascade into an outage. Defensive cybersecurity then holds the line continuously: security operations, threat detection and incident response that keep those systems monitored around the clock rather than assessed once and forgotten.
Above the fixed sites, Counter-UAS & loitering munitions provide the airborne layer, with detection tuned to the small, slow drones that can loiter over a substation or dam and the means to defeat them. These are the live catalogue capabilities matched to a utility's real geometry, a hardened control system defended by continuous cyber operations and screened from the air, rather than a generic security package. The three layers are specified to work as one so a gap in one vector is covered by another.
How a utility engagement runs
The starting point is a briefing that maps the estate, which control systems, which critical sites, which network dependencies, before any product is named. Capability is then matched under a confirmed export-control position and end-user-certificate chain, so a programme touching national essential services is governed and traceable from the first step. The utility understands what can be represented, and on what terms, before it commits.
Delivery is phased to protect continuity: hardening and monitoring of the highest-consequence sites first, then broader coverage, then the counter-drone screen over the most exposed installations. In-region sustainment and operator training run through the whole engagement, so the utility's own team can maintain the hardening, run the security operations and manage the airspace defence. One accountable team owns the programme from briefing to long-term operation.
Relevant capability
Critical infrastructure resilience
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Monitoring and incident response
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Layered defence against the drone threat
Capability page →Problems this sector faces
Power grids, water systems and transport networks face both physical and cyber attack. Hardening the control systems behind them, defending the networks around them and countering the drone threat above them keeps essential services running under pressure.
Problem pageMinistries, registries and national databases are under continuous attack from criminal and state-linked actors. Around-the-clock defensive operations, authorised red-teaming and architectures for disconnected environments protect the systems a state runs on, accountable to your government, not a foreign one.
Problem pageCheap unmanned aircraft now threaten airports, energy sites, borders and public events in every region. Layered counter-UAS, combining detection radar tuned to small slow targets, passive sensing and defeat systems, is the affordable answer recent conflicts demand.
Problem pageWhere this sector engages us
Frequently asked questions
How do you secure operational-technology systems that predate modern networks?
Infrastructure hardening starts by assessing the legacy SCADA and safety estate rather than assuming it can be replaced. It then reduces the attack surface around those systems, through segmentation, monitoring and controlled access, so the older control technology can keep switching power and moving water without being exposed to the contested network it was never designed for.
Is continuous monitoring different from a one-off security assessment?
Yes, and the distinction matters for utilities. Defensive cybersecurity provides security operations, threat detection and incident response around the clock, so an intrusion is caught and contained as it develops. A single assessment describes yesterday's posture; continuous monitoring defends the essential service through the next attempt, not just the last one.
Why does a substation or reservoir need counter-drone protection?
Fixed, unmanned sites are exactly what a small drone can loiter over and exploit, whether for reconnaissance or effect. Counter-UAS & loitering munitions add detection tuned to small, slow targets and the means to defeat them, closing the airspace over installations that cannot be watched continuously from the ground.