A Powerhouse with a Purpose

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is America’s premier energy company. The  Atlanta-based  conglomerate  contains  numerous  subsidiaries,  offering  electric  utilities  in  four  states  and  distributing  natural  gas in seven. Through its unified efforts, the Southern Company family produces 46,000 MW of generating capacity and 1,500 billion cubic feet of combined natural gas consumption and throughput volume – effectively serving nine million customers. Commitment  runs  deep  in  the  Southern  Company  family.  The enterprise  is  dedicated  to  supporting  its  customers,  communities,  employees and shareholders long-term. With guiding principles of honesty, integrity and fairness, the company approaches every day as  a  critical  step  towards  achieving  its  mission  of providing  clean,  safe, reliable and affordable energy.

Beyond the Bottom Line

With  a  rich  history  in  research  and  development  (R&D),  Southern  Company  has  set  its  sights  on  inventing  America’s  energy  future. The  enterprise  is  innovating  across  many  fields,  including  21st Century  coal,  natural  gas,  carbon-free  nuclear,  sustainable  energy and cyber security. This robust portfolio illustrates the enterprise’s commitment to leading the industry in R&D, and it demonstrates its belief that its mission can only be carried out by solving the energy problems of today and tomorrow. In  recent  years, Southern has  partnered with the federal government for R&D initiatives that have furthered  the  cyber security goals of   both the government  and Southern Company  itself.  One  example is the 2009 Smart    Grid Investment  Grant Program (SGIG)  from the  Department of Energy (DOE), which offered financial assistance to projects intended to accelerate the modernization of America’s grid infrastructure. Southern’s participation in the SGIG program led to the instantiation of a Power Delivery Cyber Security Program (CSP) responsible for governing and implementinga risk-based strategy to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover fromcyber threats.

Preparing for Tomorrow

To shape the future of operational technology (OT) cyber security, Southern must develop cyber security solutions that address the unique challenges faced in  their  OT  environments.  Currently,  the nation’s  power system  consists  of both legacy and next-generation technologies. This includes devices that may be 30-50 years old, contain no cyber security controls and utilize proprietary communication protocols and applications. In contrast, new technologies may incorporate  modern  information  technology  (IT)  devices  with  commercially-available applications and communication protocols.One of  the  ways Southern  Company’s  Power  Delivery  CSP  addressed  these challenges,  was  to  create  a  Systems  and  Communication  Protection  (SCP) initiative to protect and segment Power Delivery systems and communications across all applicable Southern Company networks. The SCP Project aims to tackle three primary challenges: 1. AVAILABILITY: Increasing the resilience of operations to ensure business continuity; 2. INTEGRITY: Ensuring safe operation of the grid by validating that control traffic originates only from authorized sources; 3. CONFIDENTIALITY: Encrypting sensitive and control traffic traversing Southern Company’s networks.

Thriving in a Tumultuous Environment

Southern Company’s engineers worked diligently with Securicon’s team to answer the SCP Project’s challenges. They collectively identified and remediated issues that arose during design and implementation, and they executed solutions to ensure that Southern Company’s power delivery systems were positioned to adopt emerging security architectures and technologies. To specifically enhance availability, integrity, and confidentiality, Securicon assisted Southern Company in developing standardized architectures, policies and procedures to implement the following: Leveraging  an  innovative  Palo  Alto  Networks  platform  to  give  Southern  Company  precise  control  over  its  network traffic. The centralized platform presents Southern Company with heightened visibility into network communication, helping the company troubleshoot performance issues and protect itself from unknown threats. Employing a user-based access model to help protect OT systems with the addition of a distributed, multi-factor authentication strategy. The new authentication process uses pre-configured hierarchies and policies to enforce a specific level of authentication on each resource, guaranteeing that data and OT are always in the right hands. Reducing the attack surface of ICS systems by the implementation of a standard zoning model. Securicon employed  best-practice  zoning  strategies  to  interconnect  ICS  and  business  networks,  logically  segmenting systems and securing access for business partners. Protecting  the  confidentiality  and  integrity  of  industrial  control  system  traffic  by  establishing  encrypted VPN  tunnels  between  control  system  networks,  allowing  Southern  Company  to  manage  and  operate  the  electric grid securely.

A Stronger Foundation to Forge Ahead

The improvements and enhancements that were executed during the SCP Project improved the overall reliability and performance of Southern Company’s power delivery systems. The collaborative effort strengthened the company’s data defenses and secured control of OT. Southern was provided with the tools and processes it needs to protect its critical communication paths and operations proactively to continue providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy for years to come.Southern  Company  and  Securicon  have  also  committed  to  continuously  innovating  solutions  to  secure  the  OT  environment.  The  constantly-evolving  technology  landscape,  coupled  with  evolving  threats,  has  increased  the  complexity  of  addressing  cyber  security  risks  looking  ahead. Smart grid technologies, distributed energy resources and other emerging and potentially-disruptive technologies – like those proliferating via the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) - must be secured as they are introduced into grid operations. The teams look to continue their relationship as they tackle these challenges and strive to shape the future of OT cyber security.