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Industrial Cybersecurity for Electric Utilities

Claroty empowers electric generation, transmission, and distribution companies with industrial cybersecurity controls built to protect their OT, IoT, IIoT, and BMS assets and all other cyber-physical systems (CPS) that underpin their OT environments.

The Industrial Cybersecurity Challenge in Electric Utilities

Electric power generation, distribution, and transmission companies are embracing digital transformation due to the traction of clean energy initiatives, escalating demand, geopolitics, global fuel shortages, climate change, and other factors. As a result, new innovations are rapidly transforming electric utilities. From smart grid technologies that reduce costs and improve service availability, reliability, and sustainability, to remote monitoring and computerized maintenance management systems that optimize demand response while enhancing control and safety — the benefits of automation, connectivity, and CPS in electric utilities are undeniable.

But for many power authorities, these benefits are overshadowed by the escalating threat of — and exposure to — industrial cybersecurity incidents. This troublesome reality has already manifested in recent years as highly disruptive state-sponsored attacks against electric grids amid times of conflict, as targeted ransomware and other malware infections that compromise service availability, and even as unintentional errors that endanger the physical safety of maintenance personnel, among others. Mitigating these risks and, ultimately, gaining cyber and operational resilience requires all segments of the electric utilities industry to embrace a new approach that extends far beyond traditional, IT-oriented security solutions.

Key Principles for Securing OT in Electric Utilities

Securing the OT environments that underpin electric generation, transmission, and distribution operations and infrastructure requires following three key principles:

1. Gain visibility into all CPS in your OT environment

Asset visibility is foundational to industrial cybersecurity — which is why all segments of electric utilities must attain a complete, real-time inventory of all OT, IoT, and BMS assets and other CPS across power generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure. It’s also why Claroty is proud to deliver the unmatched visibility our electric utilities customers need to secure the OT environments on which their critical assets and operations rely.

2. Integrate your existing IT tools & workflows with OT

Since most CPS in electric generation, transmission, and distribution rely on proprietary protocols and legacy systems, they are incompatible with IT-oriented solutions — but that doesn’t mean such solutions have no place in OT. Rather than require customers to expand their already-extensive tech stacks, Claroty integrates with them. As a result, our electric utilities customers can simply extend their existing tools and workflows from IT to OT.

3. Extend your IT security controls & governance to OT

Unlike their IT counterparts, most OT environments lack essential cybersecurity controls and consistent governance. Claroty eliminates this gap for our electric utilities customers. After providing visibility into all CPS and integrating your existing IT tools and workflows with OT, Claroty extends your existing IT controls to OT — unifying your security governance and driving all use cases on your journey to cyber and operational resilience.

Driving Cyber Resilience from IT to OT with Claroty

The Claroty journey to cyber resilience empowers electric generation, transmission, and distribution companies to extend — and further optimize — the following cybersecurity use cases and governance areas from IT to OT:

Asset Inventory

Claroty’s automated asset discovery capabilities create a centralized inventory that serves as the foundation for all cyber resilience use cases, equipping power authorities with real-time inventory of all OT, IoT, and BMS assets and all other CPS across your OT environment.

Exposure Management

Claroty extends your IT risk management controls to OT by automatically identifying, assessing, and recommending remedial actions for all exposures affecting CPS in your OT environment, enabling you to prioritize and implement mitigations to minimize lateral risk transfer.

Network Protection

Claroty hardens OT environments in all electric utilities segments against threats by defining network segmentation policies to be easily enforced by your firewall and NAC solutions, as well as providing secure access purpose-built with controls for internal and third-party OT users.

Threat Detection

Claroty enables power authorities to continuously monitor for and respond to the earliest indicators of threats — ranging from APTs, to equipment failures, to rogue insiders — before they impact service availability or reliability, safety, regulatory compliance, or other critical assets.

Boosting Operational Resilience from IT to OT with Claroty

The Claroty journey to operational resilience equips electric power authorities to extend and optimize the following security and operational use cases and governance areas from IT to OT:

Asset Inventory

Operational resilience starts with full visibility into all CPS in your OT environment. Claroty’s automated asset discovery capabilities deliver just this — empowering electric utilities companies with the real-time inventory you need as the foundation for all operational resilience use cases.

Change Management

Change management is essential to governance, compliance, maintenance, vendor management, and procurement decisions enterprise-wide. Claroty empowers MoC programs in IT and OT with continuous asset and operational monitoring and reporting to inform these and related decisions.

Asset Management

Claroty streamlines asset management for power authorities by harnessing in-depth asset insights and an enriched CMDB and CMMS via ready-made integrations to monitor for asset updates, enable SLA compliance, and optimize maintenance, demand supply, load balancing, and more.

OT Remote Access

Claroty xDome Secure Access delivers highly secure and granularly controlled remote access that is frictionless to use and administer and supports all OT remote access use cases key to all oil & gas industry segments: from OT remote maintenance, to auditing, to vendor management and more.

Streamlining Compliance for Electric Utilities

Complying with industry standards and regulations is a complex, ever-evolving endeavor for companies in all segments of electric utilities. Claroty helps streamline audits and compliance not only with respect to cybersecurity but also in adjacent areas — from safety, to availability, to sustainability, and more. Highlights include:

Regulations & Legislation

Claroty’s support for the entire CPS security journey supports and simplifies power authorities' compliance with the requirements set forth by: NERC-CIP, FERC, EPA, NIS 2.0, RCE, AESCSF, SOCI/SLACIP, and many more.

Recommended Practices & Frameworks

Compliance with the following cybersecurity practices and standards is seamlessly enabled by the controls offered by Claroty’s portfolio: CISA CPGs, IEC 62443, NIST CSF, ISO 27001, U.S. Executive Order 14028, ES-C2M2, and many more.

Why the Electric Utilities Industry Trusts Claroty

Leading electric power authorities globally trust Claroty to protect the critical CPS on which the safety, security, and mobility of our society depend. Here's why:

35+
Awards

Our comprehensive cybersecurity platform has earned dozens of accolades for seamlessly enhancing the safety, security, and efficiency of OT, IoT, IIoT, BMS, and other CPS.

400+
Disclosures

Our award-winning Team82 researchers have disclosed more vulnerabilities than any other group. Their findings enhance our platform’s protections and drive security industry-wide.

Top 3
Industrial Automation Vendors

The Top 3 automation vendors (Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, and Siemens) invest in, partner with, and are loyal customers of Claroty, further validating our leadership.

Technical Partner Spotlight

Claroty's vast technical ecosystem further expands the capabilities — and ROI — of our electric utilities customers’ existing security and operational investments. Key technical integration partners include:

Our Products

xDome

Claroty xDome is a highly flexible, modular SaaS-based solution that supports your entire industrial cybersecurity journey.

xDome Secure Access

Claroty xDome Secure Access delivers frictionless, reliable, and secure access for internal and third-party industrial personnel.

CTD

Claroty Continuous Threat Detection (CTD) is a robust solution that delivers comprehensive cybersecurity controls for industrial environments.

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