Introduction. Cybersecurity and electricity sector: relevance, features and challenges.

The growing dependence of individuals, organizations, and governments on digital ecosystems increases the exposure to cyber threats, leading cybersecurity to be a global issue in societal, political, and economic decision-making. The electricity sector is especially vulnerable due to its reliance on critical infrastructures embedded in large, interconnected networks. Hence, cyber-attacks on power grids can have catastrophic societal consequences by causing severe disruptions with long recovering times and lasting effects. “Cybersecurity and electricity sector: relevance, features and challenges” introduces the Quaderno IRCrES on Cybersecurity and data protection in the electricity sector: state-of-the-art of the literature and evaluation methods. It attempts to understand how citizens value cybersecurity when it comes to the essential good of electricity supply. The volume therefore starts from a review of the literature on Cybersecurity Economics’ main features and evaluation methods, with a specific focus on Cost Benefit Analysis methodologies. Then, it surveys recent literature on digital sovereignty at the individual level. Concurrently, the Quaderno presents two practical works. First, it describes the ESSENCE project, providing an illustration of the evaluation of costs and benefits of implementing security standards to critical electric infrastructures. Secondly, it presents an experimental activity evaluating the price attached by the Italian population to a blackout and to a data theft, based on a Discrete Choice Experiment. This introductory chapter emphasizes the relevance of the topic, with a focus on the aspects of prudence and costs in regulation. Moreover, it describes broadly the features of the electrical grid and its critical infrastructures, leading to the mention of economic challenges in the sector. Ultimately, it gives the detailed plan of the Quaderno.