DOE reveals cybersecurity partners
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Energy Department announces companies it has selected for negotiation of awards to develop and integrate cybersecurity devices into the U.S. electricity grid and energy infrastructure.
The Energy Department today announced the five companies it has selected for negotiation of awards of as much as $7.9 million to develop and integrate cybersecurity devices into the electricity grid and energy infrastructure.
The companies will work on five projects designed to protect the nation's energy infrastructure from cyberattacks and to modernize the electricity grid. The projects will integrate control systems, vast networks of interconnected electronic devices that help monitor and control the production and distribution of energy in the electric grid, and oil and gas infrastructure.
'Energy systems are integral to our daily lives, and maintaining a consistent supply of energy is vital to our national security,' said Kevin Kolevar, Energy's assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability.
The companies selected for the projects will contribute at least 20 percent of the cost, bringing the total investment to $10.6 million. Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory will manage the projects, which are expected to be completed in two to three years. DOE funding will be allocated between 2007 and 2010, subject to appropriations from Congress.
The applicants selected for the projects are:
- Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, which will develop solutions that are expected to reduce the risk of energy disruptions due to cyber incidents on control systems.
- SRI International, which will develop and demonstrate an integrated monitoring solution to process control systems.
- Digital Bond, which will identify vulnerable configurations in control system devices and applications.
- EnerNex Corp., which will research, develop, test and foster the commercialization and acceptance of energy community standards for security interoperability through the Lemnos Interoperable Security Program, an Energy-funded effort to promote interoperability standards in the network security space for utilities.
- Siemens Corporate Research, which will develop a set of security solutions to protect intelligent power grid systems against cyberattacks.
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