With geopolitical uncertainty continuing to grow, the issue of security now extends beyond military power to include energy protection, which is crucial for national security, industrial competitiveness and ongoing efforts for renewable energy and innovation.

According to former US ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, who recently spoke at Danske Bank’s Sustain Tomorrow conference, the focus on resilience and sovereignty means that energy security has taken on a new significance in national security work:

“Energy security and energy in general wasn’t always a key feature of work in the national security space. But increasingly over the past decade or two, we’ve seen countries focus on energy as a geostrategic challenge,” she explained.

Smith pointed out that dependence on single energy sources can create vulnerabilities that may be exploited politically – a reality that has become especially clear in Europe during the course of the war in Ukraine.

Among other things, there is a significant dependence on single energy sources such as gas, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine clearly demonstrating the challenges of excessive reliance. At the same time, we are increasingly seeing that hostile countries are targeting the energy sector. This occurs either through the exploitation of vulnerabilities via cyberattacks or by targeting supply chains.

“Europe has had to take some drastic moves. Germany, for example, has found itself dramatically, almost overnight, reducing its reliance on Russian oil and gas. And for many other countries around Europe, they’ve had to do something similar. Many are also looking to see if other vulnerabilities exist. Perhaps they rely on other single-source contracts?” explained Smith, who continued:

“The key here is to diversify. And also what I see as a strength in the Nordic region is this increasing reliance on clean energy, green energy as a way to diversify your energy sources and eliminate some of those vulnerabilities.”

The hybrid threat
Europe has recently experienced various hostile incidents, including the deployment of drones over Denmark and other European nations. This has prompted calls for enhanced military defence measures to address such threats.

Although responding from a conventional military perspective is important, using technology to safeguard against hybrid warfare represents a distinct and necessary approach.

One of the individuals who is highly aware of these challenges is Denmark’s tech ambassador, Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard. She is in no doubt that technology and energy are two sides of the same coin.

“Thinking about the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure, including our energy infrastructure, is going to be absolutely critical. We’re not living in a theoretical world anymore where we talk about potential impacts of a ransomware attack on a water provider. We’re already seeing that there have been a number of cases in Denmark from ransomware attacks, DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) and the broader cyberattacks across Europe. We’re living in what you can call a ‘hybrid war format’, where these attacks are increasingly being targeted on critical infrastructure,” she explains.

Joining forces to stay safe
Meldgaard emphasises the need for public and private sectors to work together to secure energy systems:

“It’s absolutely essential that we not only apply more cybersecurity products, but that we also make our fundamental grid and our energy infrastructure cyber-secure. That means we have to think about that from the get-go. Whether it is our water supply or energy supply, the grid, the batteries behind it, the governance structures – we have to think cybersecurity,” she explains.

And the stakes are high. With very little previous experience from infrastructure meltdowns, the consequences from a cyberattack could be significant.

“What would happen if we do not have access to electricity for an hour, for five hours, for a day? In a very digitised economy and society such as the Danish one, the ramifications would be enormous. So we have to take it much more seriously,” she warns.