NERC CIP Compliance Software

What Is NERC Compliance?

The North American Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) reliability standards are a mandatory set of requirements for organizations working within the bulk electric system (BES) to protect the safety and reliability of critical infrastructure. Fortra's Tripwire is here to serve as your NERC CIP compliance ally, with solutions that automate continuous compliance and improve the audit process.  

Why Is NERC Compliance Important?

Complying with NERC CIP is about much more than avoiding audit failures and their associated costs; it's also about ensuring the safety and reliability of the power grids your community depends on. Adhering to NERC CIP helps prevent dangerous outages and ensures consistent power for everyone. Automated solutions for NERC CIP enforcement streamline this critical responsibility.

Simplify your compliance tasks and pass your next audit faster with Tripwire NERC compliance software. 

 

PROTECT INDUSTRIAL NETWORKS

Apply cybersecurity solutions in your OT environment that have NERC compliance as core functionality.

BREEZE THROUGH AUDITS

Simplify compliance audits by generating customizable reports for any point in time.

CHANGE INTELLIGENCE

Detect suspicious activity and remediate unauthorized changes right away.

DASHBOARD VIEW

Save time by easily viewing the state of NERC CIP compliance across IT and OT.

What Are NERC CIP Compliance Standards?

NERC Reliability Standards for Critical Infrastructure Protection

CIP-003-8: Security Management Controls
CIP-004-7: Personnel & Training
CIP-005-7: Electronic Security Perimeter(s)
CIP-006-6: Physical Security of BES Cyber Systems
CIP-007-6: System Security Management
CIP-008-6: Incident Reporting and Response Planning
CIP-009-6: Recovery Plans for BES Cyber Systems
CIP-010-4: Configuration Change Management and Vulnerability Assessments
CIP-011-3: Information Protection
CIP-012-1: Communications between Control Centers
CIP-013-2: Supply Chain Risk Management
CIP-014-3: Physical Security

How to Maintain NERC Compliance

Maintaining compliance with NERC CIP is a complex process best managed using an automated solution that continuously enforces built-in policies, providing detailed documentation and reporting to simplify the audit process. Solutions with continuous monitoring and alerting capabilities empower you to act swiftly to return your systems to a trusted and compliant state as soon as unwanted changes occur. 

Benefits of Tripwire NERC CIP Compliance Software

Award-winning multi-policy management. Comply with NERC CIP, PCI DSS, and other requirements simultaneously. Apply policies for best practice frameworks like the CIS Critical Security Controls and MITRE ATT&CK framework, and create customized policies.

Customizable, audit-ready reporting makes for a smoother compliance audit process and helps you avoid non-compliance fines.

Integration with your existing solutions: Tripwire integrates with change management ticketing systems, GRC, CMDB, ITSM, SIEM, and more.

Broad support across your information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) infrastructures.

Why Choose Tripwire for NERC Compliance?

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NERC compliance doesn’t have to be overwhelming — not if you rely on Tripwire products and our cumulative experience helping over 100 electric utilities achieve, maintain, and prove automated NERC compliance.

Accelerate Your Compliance

Tripwire NERC compliance software keeps up with the ever-changing standard so you don’t have to. Tripwire NERC CIP policies are kept current, allowing you to efficiently apply new controls to new asset classes when needed.

Automate the Toughest Tasks

Some NERC CIP requirements are more difficult than others. For CIP-007, Tripwire saves time by monitoring the status of ports and services on each critical asset. For CIP-010, Tripwire provides current compliance status and audit records. Tripwire also helps organizations successfully meet CIP-013-1.

Simplify Proof of Compliance

In addition to standard reports, auditors will often request ad hoc proof while onsite. Tripwire provides the standard out-of-the-box reporting required by NERC standards.

Cover 23 of 44 NERC CIP Requirements

The Tripwire NERC Solution Suite provides a comprehensive NERC CIP compliance management solution by offering a tailored combination of standard Tripwire products plus NERC-specific extensions and industry-experienced consultants.

Leverage Powerful Integrations

To further ease the burden of the NERC CIP audit process, Tripwire solutions can integrate with other security and compliance solutions, such as Towerline Software. This integration enables users to pull the data from Tripwire solutions to quickly identify unmapped assets using Towerline and provides additional audit reporting functionality.

Tripwire Solutions for NERC CIP Compliance

Tripwire Enterprise

Tripwire® Enterprise pairs the industry’s most respected FIM with security configuration management (SCM) to provide real-time change intelligence and threat detection. For the compliance officer, it delivers proactive system hardening and automated compliance enforcement—resulting in a reduction of audit cycles and cost.

  • Real-time change detection
  • Automated compliance
  • Extensive integrations

Tripwire State Analyzer

Tripwire State Analyzer ensures the compliance and security of your network by monitoring the system against lists of what’s allowed to run. Aside from securing your network, the Tripwire State Analyzer’s automated report generation will save you time on preparing for audits and money by reducing findings within those audits.        

  • Defines records in centralized allowlist configuration files  
  • Automates the validation of detected system configurations against your allowlist  
  • Generates detailed system configuration reports
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What Industrial Customers Are Saying About Tripwire

We asked energy and utilities customers about the benefits they've seen in their organizations after deploying Tripwire solutions. Here's what they had to say.

Case Studies

WFEC Case Study

Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) is a U.S. electric generation and transmission cooperative. Along with the need for NERC CIP compliance and FIM, WFEC needed a solution that would identify indicators of compromise and monitor for suspicious activity without causing service interruption. According to WFEC, “Tripwire is not resource-intensive the way anti-virus is. From my perspective, Tripwire does more than traditional antivirus does. It gives you more insight.” Learn more >

Electric Utility Case Study

This power utility, like most, has multiple installs of physical access control systems (PACS) as well as primary and backup Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. Their cybersecurity specialist spends most days completing the tasks necessary to maintain SCADA system security and NERC CIP compliance. They now use Tripwire LogCenter® to generate alarms that alert system dispatchers by internal email if any network device fails to generate a log within a specific, customizable timeframe. 

Navigating Industrial Cybersecurity: A Field Guide

Industrial organizations are facing the digital convergence of their IT and OT environments and need robust compliance management and risk management programs that cover both sides of the organization to protect cyber assets.

Download this free ebook to learn about industrial control system (ICS) basics, the current threat landscape, compliance frameworks, and creating an action plan based on best practices.

 

DOWNLOAD GUIDE

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Tripwire's Navigating Industrial Cybersecurity Guide

Want to Learn More?

Let Tripwire solve your biggest security and NERC-CIP compliance challenges. Simply request a demo to get started. 

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