President Joe Biden announced a “100 Days” Initiative that focuses on improving cybersecurity for the country’s utilities. One part of that is introducing new cybersecurity tools including the electric cooperatives’ Essence 2.0 cybersecurity software.
The U.S. Department of Energy is concerned about cybersecurity as cyberattacks on the utility infrastructure in the United States increase. The DOE evaluated 18 different cybersecurity tools currently available in the market including Essence, which received high marks.
Essence 2.0 was developed by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the trade association for the country’s 900 electric co-ops, to accelerate the detection of malicious cyberthreats on utility systems from months to seconds. This analytic tool instantly provides key indicators to utility experts so they can defend their systems against emerging threats and thus thwart the attacks.