FERC, NERC propose to publicly identify utilities violating cybersecurity standards

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) are seeking public comment on a joint white paper proposing to publicly identify violators of cybersecurity standards in the bulk electric system.

The white paper, released Aug. 27, proposes that NERC would include a public cover letter with each notice that discloses the name of the violator, the reliability standards violated and the amount of penalties assessed, FERC said in a statement.

The commission said that it has received an unprecedented number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for non-public information for violations of the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards since 2018. Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen welcomes the proposed changes as a vocal critic of the current CIP standards, which are intended to encourage self-disclosure.