AI Security for Power and Utilities

F5 Newsroom Staff

Utilities are turning to AI for demand forecasting, outage prediction, smart grid optimization, and customer engagement. These innovations boost efficiency and resilience, but they also create new risks for critical infrastructure:

• Leakage of grid data, control systems, or customer account details
• Adversarial manipulations of grid optimization copilots or outage response assistants
• AI-driven errors disrupting service continuity or regulatory compliance
• Attacks targeting operational AI to cause downtime or safety incidents

Our AI runtime security solutions secure the Power & Utilities vertical with Red Team to validate and Guardrails to protect AI deployments.

Red Team: Validate AI Before It Reaches the Grid

F5 AI Red Team, previously named Inference Red-Team, stress-tests AI copilots and applications in power and utility environments before deployment.

• Agentic Resistance: Multi-turn adversarial campaigns simulating insider threats or malicious actors targeting grid systems.
• Signature & Operational Attacks: 50,000+ evolving exploits test forecasting, grid copilots, and outage response AI for injection, leakage, and denial-of-service.
• Critical Infrastructure Testing: Validates AI against risks unique to utilities — ensuring reliability, safety, and compliance before go-live.

Outcome for Utilities: AI systems are hardened against real-world threats, reducing risk of outages and compliance failures.

Guardrails: Protect Grid & Customer AI in Real Time

Once deployed, AI Guardrails, previously named Inference Defend, protects utility AI at runtime, blocking adversarial exploits without slowing performance.

• Data Protection: Prevents leakage of customer account data, SCADA inputs, or system logs.
• Stop Adversarial Exploits: Blocks prompt injections or jailbreaks that could alter demand forecasts, load balancing, or outage response.
• Adaptive Policies: Align protections with utility sector standards such as NERC CIP, GDPR, and national critical infrastructure frameworks.

Outcome for Utilities: Secure, reliable AI that supports grid resilience, customer service, and compliance.

Comprehensive AI Security for Power & Utilities

With AI Red Team and AI Guardrails, utilities gain:

• Grid Resilience: Hardens AI applications against adversarial threats to critical infrastructure.
• Data Protection: Secures sensitive operational and customer data.
• Regulatory Compliance: Simplifies alignment with safety, privacy, and infrastructure standards.
• Operational Confidence: Enables secure adoption of AI to improve forecasting, maintenance, and customer experience.

AI Security Available as SaaS Point Solutions

AI Red Team and AI Guardrails are available as point solutions or as part of a broader platform. This gives power and utility providers the flexibility to secure AI deployments across grid operations, workforce management, and customer services without disrupting reliability.

The Bottom Line

Our suite of AI runtime security solutions secures the Power & Utilities vertical by validating and protecting AI applications across grid management and customer operations — enabling providers to innovate responsibly while keeping services safe, reliable, and compliant.

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F5 Newsroom Staff

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