Bullzi Security Inc. has released its new, NERC Awareness e-learning course, which addresses security education in the energy and utility sector.

In 2006, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) adopted Cyber Security Standards CIP-002-009. These standards establish the minimum requirements needed to ensure the security of electronic exchange of information needed to support the reliability and the bulk power system. The multi-year implementation schedule establishes the milestones for compliance by the electric sector's owners and operators.

NERC's mission is to improve the reliability and security of the bulk power system in North America. To achieve that, NERC develops and enforces reliability standards; monitors the bulk power system; assesses future adequacy; audits owners, operators, and users for preparedness; and educates and trains industry personnel.

Michael Welch, co-founder and senior vice president of Bullzi Security said, "We've been developing a course specific to the NERC standard for a number of months and we are pleased to have completed the development ahead of schedule. This on-line education program addresses CIP 004-1, which is the part of the NERC standard that focuses on Cyber Security training, by educating and training employees on security threats and countermeasures. In addition to meeting the controls outlined in the compliance standard, the NERC Awareness Course is also completely customizable so as to allow organizations to address security issues that may be affected by corporate culture."

Welch went on to say that, "We already have a number of clients, such as Tucson Power and Electric, Independent Electric Services Organization, Brookfield Power and Atomic Energy of Canada, who already using Bullzi's Web-based Information Security Education (WISE) series to train their employees on critical security issues, but the new NERC Awareness Course will help us to further penetrate this market."