The cyber security of French nuclear installations: stakes and opportunities

Notably due to the development of the number of connected objects, nuclear installations, their supply chain and all the actors of the chain value are exposed to cyber risks, even if a recent study noticed that successful cyber attacks involving nuclear plants are rare, but real. Thus, the threat is actual and growing, and the IAEA is already working with Interpol on this issue. The author then describes how French actors (EDF, Areva, CEA) have introduced cyber-resilience to better anticipate and identify actual threats and critical vulnerabilities in order to protect infrastructures. He comments some strengthened regulatory measures introduced for the French nuclear sector, and continuous improvements brought in the field of cyber security. He shows that handling these risks is also an opportunity to develop crisis management tools through the development of a specific know-how which also has an industrial value