The objective of this project is to establish a National Electric Sector Cybersecurity Organization Resource (NESCOR) that has the knowledge and capacity to enhance the effort of the National Electric Sector Cybersecurity Organization (NESCO) by providing technical assessments of power system and cybersecurity standards to meet power system security requirements; provide recommendations for incident response, and participate in testing emerging security technologies in labs and pilot projects. EneNex will work collaboratively with EPRI and NESCO to focus cyber security research and development priorities and to identify and disseminate best practices; organize the collection, analysis and dissemination of infrastructure vulnerabilities and threats; and work cooperatively with the Department of Energy and other Federal agencies to identify areas where Federal agencies with jurisdiction may best support efforts to enhance cyber security of the bulk power electric grid and electric infrastructure.
The NESCOR project involves the formation of a full-time core leadership team that will lead the operation the National Electric Sector Cyber Security Organization Resource (NESCOR) and work collaboratively with NESCO. This team will establish administrative and operating functions, and will seek out and establish a broad range of collaborative efforts between sector asset owners, product vendors, service providers, research facilities, and government entities. NESCOR will expand EPRl’s current programs for reviewing and utilizing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and other cybersecurity requirements and results; assessing existing power system and cybersecurity standards to meet power system security requirements; and participating in testing security technologies in labs and pilot projects to all parts of the electric sector infrastructure.