Cybersecurity for Energy, Utilities, and Power Companies

The corporate infrastructure of a power and utility provider houses important IT network services that help its various plants or facilities operate. The corporate IT network contains information such as the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, financial information, and supply chain and partner network access details, as well as information about its extensive physical structure—all of which is stored and relied upon for business decisions.

Given the amount of critical data stored on these networks, the corporate infrastructure needs a broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity for energy & utilities solution that can help implement true end-to-end integration. The Fortinet Security Fabric, backed by powerful FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), enables the power and utility network to achieve integration across the entire infrastructure.

Security teams benefit from centralized management and workflow automation from FortiManager, while FortiAnalyzer works in tandem to support analytics-powered security and log management to deliver smarter breach detection.

In addition, power and utility companies with remote or branch offices can rely on FortiAP for secure wireless access. Keep track of all physical movement across locations as well with Fortinet network-based video security for instant visual surveillance with no licensing fees.

This phase involves both highly valuable and centralized assets such as hydroelectric, nuclear, coal, or gas power plants, as well as distributed systems such as wind or solar farms. This unique infrastructure makes cybersecurity for energy & utilities more complex, and also more important, than ever before. Often, most power and utility companies share these similar challenges, including water and sewage treatment plants.

All of these power and utility systems are vulnerable to attacks aimed at causing service interruptions. Since the risk of outages or physical damage is potentially severe in these cases, comprehensive protection for both cyber and physical security of power and utilities plants is essential.

FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) deliver network security and performance along with centralized visibility and control, allowing security teams to get a complete view of their infrastructure. In addition, they allow teams to leverage intent-based segmentation capabilities to implement consistent policies across dynamic network environments. FortiAuthenticator identity and access management leverages segmentation and uses FortiToken to grant access to users on a need-to-know basis. Similarly, FortiNAC network access control works to monitor and control network access of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

FortiManager delivers a trustworthy power utility solution with single-pane-of-glass management as well as reporting tools to easily meet compliance. FortiAnalyzer delivers analytics-powered security and log management for maximum visibility and better breach detection. Additionally, the FortiSIEM security information and event management solution provides automated response and remediation to help prevent breaches before they occur, and FortiSandbox uses advanced threat detection to combat previously unknown threats. FortiDeceptor uses automated deception technology to find and respond to both internal and external threats.

FortiSwitch delivers secure, scalable Ethernet solutions, and FortiPresence helps keep track of what smartphones are on the network and analyzes their behavior. Keep track of all physical movement across locations as well with Fortinet network-based video security from FortiCamera/FortiRecorder for instant visual surveillance with no licensing fees.

As power plants transmit electricity via high-voltage transmission lines and other utilities send water and sewage through pipelines, these utilities span a broad physical range. In this scenario, the attack surface spans a wide geographical region that hosts these infrastructures.

In addition, power and utility companies are increasingly leveraging automated technology and processes to move energy around the grid safely, ensure steady and clean water supplies, and more, presenting more opportunities for cyber attackers. Power and utilities in this phase should work to ensure broad and integrated protection.

FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) support active-passive high availability (HA) that provides seamless failover in the event of a network failure. Utilities can also leverage the built-in Secure SD-WAN capabilities within FortiGate to modernize their infrastructure from legacy multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) to direct internet access with robust networking performance and security in a single solution.

FortiSIEM delivers powerful security information and event management capabilities to deliver visibility, correlation, and automated threat response and remediation in a single, scalable solution. FortiAnalyzer uses analytics-powered security and log management to provide better detection against breaches.

Keep track of all physical movement across locations as well with Fortinet network-based video security from FortiCamera/FortiRecorder for instant visual surveillance with no licensing fees.

Distributing power and utilities services to users consists of a complex network of water and sewer mains, substations, and smart metering devices at the core of today’s system. This means that the attack surface now includes Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) devices for metering at nearly every building in a utility’s service area, along with hundreds of unstaffed substations that run autonomously. This phase requires both physical security for buildings and substations without staff along with critical cybersecurity for energy & utilities to prevent cyberattacks.

FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) deliver network security and performance along with visibility and control, allowing security teams to get a complete view of their infrastructure. In addition, FortiGate NGFWs deliver intent-based segmentation capabilities to implement consistent policies and threat protection wherever it is needed, both on-premises and in the cloud, to reduce risk, achieve compliance, and protect critical utility applications.

Built within FortiGate NGFWs are Secure SD-WAN capabilities, which power and utility companies can use to modernize their infrastructure, gaining direct internet access with strong application performance plus security in a single solution. In addition, Fortinet Secure SD-Branch enables distributed locations to combine security and network access, extending the reach of the Fortinet Security Fabric to the branch edge.   

FortiNAC network access control provides full visibility of all IIoT devices on the utility network and complete control of the level of access granted to each. FortiSwitch offers secure, scalable Ethernet throughout the entire network.

FortiManager delivers unified, single-pane-of-glass management and reporting tools to easily meet compliance. FortiAnalyzer delivers analytics-powered security and log management for stronger breach detection. Additionally, the FortiSIEM security information and event management solution provides automated response and remediation to help prevent breaches before they occur.

Utilities can monitor physical movement across locations as well with Fortinet network-based video security from FortiCamera/FortiRecorder for instant visual surveillance with no licensing fees.

Power and utility customers now expect streamlined communications for mobile applications, automated bill payments, and real-time metering information. In turn, these electronic channels are also the primary medium in which power and utility companies can communicate with customers to deliver instant information and updates about outages or situations that may pose risks to physical safety. Any outages or downtime to these systems as a result of a cyberattack detracts from a power and utility company’s reputation and reliability.

FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) deliver network security and performance along with visibility and control, allowing teams to see a complete view of their infrastructure.

FortiNAC network access control provides full visibility of all Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices on the utility network and complete control of the level of access granted to each. FortiSwitch offers secure, scalable Ethernet throughout the entire network, and FortiPresence helps keep track of what smartphones are on the network and analyzes their behavior. In addition, utilities with remote or branch offices can rely on FortiAP for secure wireless access.

FortiManager delivers unified, single-pane-of-glass management and reporting tools to easily meet compliance. FortiAnalyzer delivers analytics-powered security and log management for stronger breach detection.