The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) maintains comprehensive reliability standards that define requirements for planning and operating the bulk electric system (BES). Among these are the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Cyber Security Standards, which specify a minimum set of controls and processes for power generation and transmission companies to follow to ensure...

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was created to help organizations that process credit card payments secure the cardholder environment to prevent credit card fraud, cyber threats, and other security vulnerabilities. The latest version, 4.0, provides specific security guidance on handling, processing, transmitting, and storing credit card data to minimize the theft...

North American electric utility companies constantly balance the need to be audit-ready for NERC CIP compliance against their top priority: ensuring the reliability of the bulk electric system. NERC CIP compliance, especially when approached using manual methods, is complex, time-consuming, and prone to human error. Further, NERC CIP requirements often infer security skill sets beyond those of...