On May 2, The Board of Trustees of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) adopted eight new cyber security standards that address asset identification, security management controls, personnel and training, perimeter security, systems security, incident reporting and response planning, and recovery plans. These standards replace the Urgent Action Cyber Security Standard, which NERC adopted on an interim basis in August 2003 to address cyber security concerns in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“These eight new standards provide a comprehensive set of requirements to protect the bulk power system from malicious cyber attacks,” said Rick Sergel, NERC president and CEO. “I want to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the industry volunteers and the NERC staff who worked tirelessly over the past several years not only to develop these important standards, but also to achieve the overwhelming industry consensus and support that led to their adoption today.”

The industry voted to approve the cyber security standards by an 88.8% vote; they will become effective as NERC standards on June 1, 2006.

In addition to the cyber security standards, the board approved 13 additional reliability standards that address interchange coordination; system restoration plans; data requirements, documentation, and reporting procedures; as well as an urgent action standard that addresses a Southwest Power Pool regional difference on inadvertent interchange.

NERC will file all of the newly adopted standards with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and applicable governmental authorities in Canada. These standards are proposed to become electric reliability organization (ERO) reliability standards once they are approved by U.S. and Canadian authorities.

For more information about the reliability standards adopted on May 2, go to ftp://www.nerc.com/pub/sys/all_updl/docs/bot/Agenda-Items-0506/Item5.pdf. To view all NERC reliability standards, including those under development, go to go to https://standards.nerc.net/. To learn more about NERC’s efforts to become recognized as the electric reliability organization for North America, go to http://www.nerc.com/about/ero.html.