On January 5, 2012, the White House launched an initiative to enhance the security and reliability of the nation’s electrical grid.  The initiative is known as the Electric Sector Cyber-Security Risk Management Maturity Project.  The Project will be led by the Department of Energy (“DOE”) and the Department of Homeland Security.  This new initiative builds on the efforts of the Obama Administration to enhance the security and reliability of the nation’s electric transmission grid.  The new initiative is also intended to work in conjunction with the DOE’s Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity and its initial draft of the Cybersecurity Risk Management Process Guideline, both released in September of 2011.

The new initiative is intended to provide utility companies and grid operators with a model that will allow them to measure the capabilities and gaps in their cyber defense systems.   The model will be designed by a public/private partnership between the government and the industry through a series of workshops.  This partnership will also feature a pilot program to assess the model as it develops, test the initiative’s effectiveness, and to validate its final results.  

To view the Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity, click here.

To view the draft of the Cybersecurity Risk Management Process Guideline, click here.