Utilities Sector
Services and solutions uniquely crafted to meet the high availability and safety standards of the Utility Sector.
Utilities (Distribution, G&T's, Water)
Over the past 15 years we’ve worked closely with our utility clients to develop targeted offerings for your industry. Our team works with your IT and operations personnel to maximize availability and safety while still maintaining a focus on discovering vulnerabilities such as physical deficiencies, insufficient access controls, and out of date firmware versions. The goal is to ensure a positive outcome that can benefit all groups within the organization.
Services and Solutions Specific to Your Industry
Substation Audit
How Vulnerable Are Your Substations?
Physical attacks on the U.S. Power grid have increased significantly over the past decade. Cyber events, sabotage, physical attacks, vandalism, and other human related disturbances have all contributed to the uptick. Just five years ago, the total number of all human related disturbances reported to DOE (via form OE-417) was just under sixty (60). In 2022, that number was over one hundred and seventy (170), with several targeting substations. How vulnerable are your substations? What kind of visibility do you have? How easy would it be for a threat to access the OT network from the substation?
The Contextual Security Solutions Substation Audit can help organizations better understand their risk related to a substation attack. This audit includes a review of the physical controls (e.g. cameras, gates, locks, door, personnel), network security (vulnerabilities, segmentation controls), and communications security. The results from the Substation Audit are documented in a formal report and covered in an out brief. To learn more about our Substation Auditing service, or any of our other Operational Technology Reviews (Power, Water, Gas, Misc.), please click the “Schedule a Discovery Call” below.
Information Sharing
Contextual Security Solutions stays actively involved in & engaged with our customer community by providing education and empowering them with the resources and tools needed for proactive change. Our commitment to partnership through education extends to utility & critical infrastructure providers at the local, state, & national level. We have had the privilege to be featured speakers at some of the utility sector’s largest national events such as NRECA Tech Advantage and NRECA Co-op CyberTech.
We have also spoken at state and regional conferences such as the Alabama Rural Electric Association of Cooperatives (AREA) Annual Meeting, Georgia EMC, Texas Electric Cooperatives, and Cooperative Technologies Conference & Expo (CTCE) in the Carolinas, just to name a few. Lasty, we are regular contributors to education conferences such as CyberCon and have lead workshops at EnergySec's Security Education Week. Here are some of our recent presentations:
- Reimaging Grid Resilience
- Zone 3 Expo “Parsing Data from Common Security Tools"
- Cybersecurity Landscape
- The Blue Team Never Sleeps
- Emerging Utility Threat landscape
- From Password123 to Secure Fortress
- Email Security Best Practices
- CbryeScretuiy | Nkwo Hte Ismsoin" (Cybersecurity-Know the Mission)
- Security Metrics and Budget Implications
- Common Assessment Tools for IT and OT Testing
Utilities Sector Assessment
Our Utilities Sector Assessment is a tailored version of our flagship Penetration Testing service which is tied closely to the Open-Source Security Testing Methodology (OSSTM) and the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES). In addition to the core components of our Penetration Testing service, it also includes two other key activities: Segmentation Testing and Substation Auditing. Lastly, as with all of our enterprise solutions, it includes a formal presentation and executive out brief to the organization's stakeholders.
