NRECA receives grant to advance new cybersecurity solution for utilities

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded funding on Thursday to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) to advance the React cybersecurity solution for utilities that monitors IT networks for near real-time detection of possible cyber intrusions.

React will aim to develop a system for rapidly detecting cyber attacks and compromised systems, along with supporting users in rapid remediation. NRECA will make the system available to utilities by incorporating it into commercially-available products.

React is one of 12 projects that received grants from the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability’s Cybersecurity of Energy Delivery Systems (CEDS) program under the DOE. React builds upon the Essence prototype developed by NRECA in partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Honeywell and Carnegie Mellon University.

“We built a powerful prototype in an earlier DOE project,” Jim Spiers, senior vice president of business and technology strategies at NRECA, said. “It works. With this project we can work with commercial partners to take it to production. We plan to improve the security of thousands of utilities.”

NRECA is the national service organization that represents the nation’s more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 42 million people in 47 states.