INL releases cybersecurity infrastructure protection tool
The Idaho National Laboratory Wednesday released what it’s calling a “revolutionary new cybersecurity tool” to help protect the electric power grid.
The Structured Threat Intelligence Graph (STIG) software will allow utility owners and operators to easily visualize, share, create, and edit cyber threat intelligence information.
INL officials said it is important that utilities have the ability to share threat intelligence to protect critical infrastructure from “cyber exploits”. That includes protections for the electric power grid, water treatment facilities, oil refineries, and manufacturing plants.
The new software standardizes threat information and converts complex data into a visualization that is easy to understand and act on.
The common “STIG” system is intended to help operators share threat intelligence information and increase the chances of detecting and mitigating any mischief before it leads to a cyber attack.
“We’ve been working on the development of this tool for quite a while and have had success testing it with a major utility,” said Jed Haile, INL cybersecurity researcher and tool developer. “This software helps analysts process new threat information rapidly and makes it easier for them to find or create relationships between pieces of information.”
The INL team, including Infrastructure Security Strategic Adviser Rita Foster and cybersecurity researchers Justin Cox and Zach Priest were instrumental in the tool’s development.
The team worked closely with Southern California Edison, which provides 14 million people with electricity over 50,000 square miles of territory. The utility sponsored the research that led to development of the software…and requested approval to release the open source code.
The tool is available for free download here.
