The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Officer of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) has opened applications for a $100 million program to bolster the cybersecurity frameworks of electric cooperative, municipal and small investor-owned utilities across the nation.
The funding will be made available through the Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity (RMUC) Advanced Cybersecurity Technical Assistance (TA) Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA). The PIA – known as ConnectWerx – will oversee RMUC TA distribution and execution.
The program will help support key initiatives designed to support energy security and unlock domestic energy resources by strengthening underserved utilities. Not-for-profit organizations may apply to provide cybersecurity technical assistance, technologies, services, threat information sharing and other support as needed to ensure these utilities are protected and empowered.
Recipients must prove they have formal partnerships with no fewer than six electric utilities. In addition, they must demonstrate their capacity to execute cybersecurity improvements across these utilities, including:
- Cybersecurity assessments and planning.
- Workforce training and certification.
- Exercises and readiness.
- Implementation and integration of cybersecurity tools and technologies.
- Verification and validation.
- Cybersecurity threat information sharing activities.
- Other activities that support measurable improvements in the cybersecurity posture and resilience of eligible utilities.
The end goal of these projects should achieve three key objectives: system hardening, threat intelligence sharing and infrastructure protection. Initiatives should encompass cybersecurity best practices, policies and tools that drastically and measurably improve cybersecurity postures. Recipients should also ensure that they effectively utilize and share threat intelligence among partners through an optimized, effective framework. Finally, all innovations must contribute to overall energy infrastructure defense.
The RMUC TA program focuses on two focus areas: Technical Assistance Programs and Cybersecurity Threat Information Sharing.
Focus Area 1 – Technical Assistance Program – revolves around projects that curate programs that help utilities improve their capability to defend against, detect, respond to and recover from cybersecurity threats. The following categories represent a selection of eligible activities:
- Assistance with implementation of policy directives.
- Technology and tool integration.
- Assessments and gap analysis.
- Strategic road mapping.
- Workforce training and certification.
- Exercises and readiness.
- Verification and validation testing.
Focus Area 2 – Cybersecurity Threat Information Sharing – prioritizes efforts to leverage Protective Domain Name System (PDNS) services that upgrade and reinforce cybersecurity postures. Eligible program activities include:
- PDNS deployment.
- Public/private cybersecurity threat information sharing.
- Information security.
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