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N-Dimension Selected by Fayetteville PWC to Help Meet NERC CIP ComplianceN-Dimension Solutions, a market leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with innovative solutions that protect smart energy networks from cyber threats, announced today that Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC) is now an N-Sentinel Monitoring customer. The utility installed N-Sentinel Monitoring next to their SCADA firewall to add an additional layer of cyber threat vigilance, contributing towards its goal of meeting NERC (News - Alert) CIP compliance. Fayetteville PWC is a community-owned utility in North Carolina that delivers power, water and wastewater services throughout Cumberland County. It is the largest municipal utility in the state with nearly 80,000 electric customers and approximately 600 employees. Fayetteville PWC was recognized earlier this year by the American Public Power Association (APPA) as a Diamond Level Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) utility through its outstanding efforts to deliver safe reliable power to the community in addition to completing system improvements and quality employee training. The utility identified cybersecurity as one its top strategic priorities to address over the next few years. As part of this initiative, the SCADA operations team for the power network drove the idea of adopting NERC CIP v5 as best practices to improve their cyber defenses. While not a requirement at this time for the utility, the team wanted to be better prepared for the future should compliance become a mandate and given the increase within the utility industry in cyber threat activity. Fayetteville PWC selected N-Dimension's N-Sentinel Monitoring, which combines timely threat detection and analysis, utility community threat insights and access to cybersecurity experts. With information and guidance from N-Dimension, they have stayed updated about potential cyber risks and have used the information to fine-tune their security system parameters to reduce risk. "Without continuous threat monitoring it's easy to get a false sense that your security systems are already protecting you when they may not be," said Joel Valley, manager, substations and electric support servies for Fayetteville PWC. "To know how to protect your network you first need to know what's attacking it and that's where N-Sentinel Monitoring has really helped." "Cybersecurity has become one of the top concerns of power utilities as threat activity has continued to accelerate," said Tom Ayers, president and CEO, N-Dimension. "In addition to working directly with utility customers, we are working closely with the APPA and NRECA as they build cybersecurity strategies for their constituency." Upcoming events in which N-Dimension will be participating include ElectriCities of North Carolina Annual Conference (August 11-13); NCAEC 2016 Technology Conference (August 17-19); 2016 MPUA Annual Conference (September 14-16); and APPA Business and Finance (September 18-21). About N-Dimension Solutions N-Dimension is a market leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with innovative solutions tailored to protect smart energy networks from cyber attacks, improving system reliability and safeguarding critical infrastructure, data and assets. The company's N-Sentinel line of services delivers vigilance, detecting and alerting on cyber threats. It combines cloud-based security intelligence and cybersecurity experts to deliver actionable guidance that enables utilities to take timely, preemptive action to protect themselves against cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Company headquarters are in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada and U.S. headquarters are located in Addison, Texas. N-Dimension is the exclusive cybersecurity partner Hometown Connections, the utility services subsidiary of the American Public Power Association (APPA), an associate member of the APPA, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and Electricity Distributors Association (EDA). For more information about N-Sentinel and to request a free demo, visit our website at www.n-dimension.com. Please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn; check us out on YouTube and CrunchBase.
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