New Standards To Protect U.S. Power Utilities Against Cyber Attacks

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The first mandatory standards that protect the U.S. power system from cyber attacks had been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Under the new standards, power utility owners and operators are required to protect physical and electronic access to control systems, FERC said in a statement.

According to the regulatory agency, eight reliability standards include critical cyber asset identification; security management controls; personnel and training; electronic security perimeters; physical security of critical cyber assets; systems security management; incident reporting and response planning; and recovery plans for critical cyber assets.

The new mandatory standards, approved Thursday, were developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

They take effect 60 days after Congress receives the copies of the standards or after they are published in the Federal Register.

"The electric industry now can move on to the implementation of the standards in conjunction with improvement of these standards in order to increase the security and reliability of the bulk power system," said FERC Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher.