Fergie's Tech Blog

SCADA Watch: FERC Seeks to Close Cyber-Security 'Gaps' at Nuclear Plants

Jacob Goodwin writes on Government Security News:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wants to ensure that when new security regulations related to nuclear power plants come into effect, no security “gap” is created that would leave portions of the nuclear plants unprotected from cyber-attacks.

To that end, the FERC issued a “clarification” on March 25 that indicated that those portions of a nuclear power plant that were specifically exempted from tighter security procedures in the forthcoming regulations from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), are nonetheless still required to adhere to what are known as Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards.

“Thus, to assure that there is no ‘gap’ in the regulatory process, the [FERC] clarifies that the ‘balance of plant’ equipment within a nuclear power plant in the United States that is not regulated by the NRC is subject to compliance with the CIP Reliability Standards,” said FERC, in a notice published in the Federal Register.

posted by Fergie @ 3/25/2009 08:28:00 PM