New Dragos Community Defense Program works to secure industrial infrastructure for small utilities

Industrial cybersecurity company Dragos announced Wednesday the expansion of the Dragos Community Defense Program for water, gas, and electric utilities with the opportunity to participate indefinitely. The program gives under-resourced U.S.-based utility providers with under US$100 million in annual revenue access to Dragos products that provide the foundation for building and growing their operational technology (OT) cybersecurity programs, improving their security posture, and reducing OT cyber risk.

The deal includes free Dragos Platform software that provides OT network visibility and monitoring, including asset visibility and inventory, threat detection, vulnerability management, and threat hunting. It also covers enrollment in Neighborhood Keeper, the company’s collective defense solution; membership in its OT-CERT program that provides access to free cybersecurity resources for the industrial control system (ICS) /OT community, and access to Dragos Academy for Dragos Platform training as well as general ICS/OT cybersecurity training and classes.

“Protecting power and water systems has become more challenging than ever as global threat actors and ransomware groups target critical infrastructure with increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks,” Robert Lee, Dragos’ CEO and co-founder, wrote in a company blog post. “Small utilities that service our local communities are on the front lines of the fight and are up against outsized adversaries when it comes to defending against cyber threats.” 

In addition to maintaining operational reliability, these small organizations, whose security teams often wear multiple hats, are now navigating national security issues, supply chain risks, vulnerability management, and cyber threats, according to Lee. “At the same time, because of a lack of resources and expertise, they often struggle to build cybersecurity programs, especially programs to protect operational technology.”

Launched as a pilot program in 2022 to help small utilities protect themselves in the face of increasing global threats to infrastructure, the program provides free Dragos Platform software, as well as enrollment in Neighborhood Keeper for qualifying utilities for as long as they meet program criteria. 

Lee pointed out that small utilities don’t need a free trial or a one-time offer, they need reliable resources and continuous access to fundamental tools and technology. “For this reason, utilities will be able to participate in the Dragos Community Defense Program and receive continuous access to the Dragos Platform, Neighborhood Keeper, and our other resources for as long as they continue to meet the eligibility requirements,” he added.

Governments and large infrastructure providers are heavily investing in industrial cybersecurity, but small utilities that deliver critical services to the majority of people haven’t been able to do the same. Their resource constraints are uniquely challenging because their budgets are not only smaller, but often they face other restrictions, such as regulation by public utility commissions which assess expenses and determine the allowability of cost recovery for investments such as cybersecurity costs. They often don’t have the resources to buy foundational tools, like the Dragos Platform, to help defend their infrastructure. 

The Dragos Community Defense Program aims to change this by helping these organizations build the critical cyber protections they need to defend communities against potentially destructive industrial cyber attacks and ensure that communities have clean water and power.

In addition to expanding the Community Defense Program, Dragos has been supporting the OT community, including under-resourced organizations, since 2022 through its OT-CERT program. OT-CERT, which has over 1,500 members in 60 countries, provides free how-to guides and demonstration videos, best practices, training, interactive working sessions, tabletop exercises, and webinars to build industrial cybersecurity expertise and address shortages of OT security skills.

In October, Dragos expanded its combined capabilities in partnership with Rockwell Automation. With the deal, Rockwell will be making the Dragos Platform available to organizations for enhanced ICS/OT cybersecurity threat detection, providing global deployment services and support capabilities to help customers operationalize their security investment.

Anna Ribeiro

Industrial Cyber News Editor. Anna Ribeiro is a freelance journalist with over 14 years of experience in the areas of security, data storage, virtualization and IoT.