San Francisco, CA – GlobalSign, the enterprise SaaS Certificate Authority (CA), today announced the launch of the first energy market trading application to operate within North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) standards on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) by its customer ISO New England, the operator of the New England bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets. Implementing strong authentication based on NAESB’s guidelines supports ISO New England’s efforts to meet components outlined in the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework for Executive Order (EO) 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure (CI) Cybersecurity.
Due to the critical nature of ensuring efficient and reliable delivery of electricity, and based on recommendations from the Executive Order to improve CI cybersecurity, ISO New England opted to increase the level of identity authentication for their power generators, regional utility companies, and other market participants that utilize their eMarket portal. With GlobalSign, they found a NAESB-compliant partner who was committed to helping them meet their need for strong authentication in a way that is transparent for their stakeholders, while ensuring highly-trusted, authenticated energy transactions.
Authentication is listed as a key area for improvement in the NIST Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework, the set of standards, guidelines, and best practices that has been drafted to put the recommendations from the Executive Order into action. The Framework specifically mentions the inadequacy of passwords as a means of authentication.
“PKI is a long-established and proven method for securely authenticating digital identities, but there are a variety of implementation details that can mean the difference between a weak and vulnerable identity management system and a highly secure one,” states Lila Kee, GlobalSign’s chief product officer. “NAESB helped standardize PKI for the energy market to reduce the risk of weak implementations, so we’re pleased to help ISO New England lead the adoption of the guidelines to secure their platform. Now, ISO New England is able to strongly authenticate their eMarket users and help meet the Executive Order recommendations for Improving Critical Infrastructure.”
GlobalSign is the only public NAESB-authorized Certificate Authority trusted in all popular browsers and operating systems and is a key member and active participant in establishing PKI standards for NAESB. As a member of NAESB’s Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ) Board of Directors, Kee played a lead role in the development of the PKI and other cybersecurity standards.
For more information about using PKI to meet NIST recommendations for the Executive Order, or other authentication solutions, stop by GlobalSign’s booth, #320, at the upcoming RSA Conference February 24 – 27 in San Francisco, CA or contact GlobalSign sales at 1-877-775-4562.
Additional information about the development of cybersecurity standards in the energy sector and how those standards can be used to reduce the risk of harmful cyber attacks in other Critical Infrastructure sectors can be found in the white paper, “How PKI Secures Critical Infrastructure Networks against Advanced Attacks.”
About GMO GlobalSign
GlobalSign (www.globalsign.com) has been a trust service provider since 1996 with a singular focus on providing convenient and highly productive PKI solutions for organizations of all sizes. Its Digital Certificate solutions allow billions of customers worldwide to conduct SSL-secured transactions with authenticated businesses, transfer data, distribute tamper-proof code, and protect online identities for secure email and access control. Vision and commitment to innovation led to GlobalSign being recognized by Frost & Sullivan for the 2011 Product Line Strategy Award. The company has local offices in the US, Europe and throughout Asia. For the latest news on GlobalSign visit www.globalsign.com or follow GlobalSign on Twitter (@globalsign).
About GMO Internet Group
GMO Internet Group is a comprehensive provider of industry-leading Internet solutions including domain name registration, cloud-based and traditional hosting, ecommerce, security, and payment processing services that each hold the top share of their respective markets in Japan. Other key business areas for the Group include online securities/FX trading, Internet advertising, search engine marketing, and smartphone game development and publishing. GMO Internet, Inc. (TSE: 9449) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. For more information please visit http://www.gmo.jp/en.
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