Pacific Gas And Electric Company (PG&E) operates critical energy infrastructure for 16 million people across a 70,000-square-mile service area in California. That scale is the threat model: a combined natural gas and electric grid serving a region prone to wildfires, extreme weather, and seismic activity. The attack surface is physical and digital - a single compromised sensor or network path could have consequences measured in acres burned or neighborhoods dark. The company's 24/7 Hazard Awareness & Warning Center is a concrete example of the operational tempo: continuous monitoring for threats that don't respect the boundary between cybersecurity and physical safety.
Technical domains for security teams map directly to the grid itself. Grid modernization means new protocols and legacy system integration. Renewable energy integration expands the perimeter with distributed assets. Infrastructure undergrounding shifts risk profiles. The work spans IT/OT convergence in a high-consequence environment where the asset is the power lines, gas mains, and control systems that keep a major state running. Securing that isn't theoretical - it's about defending SCADA networks, industrial control systems, and the data flows that inform wildfire risk models across one of the nation's largest utility footprints.
