The Dragos Community Defense Program Helps Secure Industrial Infrastructure for Small Utilities

Today we announced the expansion of the Dragos Community Defense Program for water, gas, and electric utilities. Launched as a pilot program in 2022 to help small utilities protect themselves in the face of increasing global threats to infrastructure, the program provides free Dragos Platform software, as well as enrollment in Neighborhood Keeper, our collective defense capability, for qualifying utilities for as long as they meet program criteria. Now, we are expanding it to give more small utilities across the United States the opportunity to participate indefinitely. The expansion of this program is us putting action behind the words in our mission to safeguard civilization.

The Challenge Is Clear

Protecting power and water systems has become more challenging than ever as global threat actors and ransomware groups target critical infrastructure with increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Small utilities that service our local communities are on the front lines of the fight and are up against outsized adversaries when it comes to defending against cyber threats. In addition to maintaining operational reliability, these small organizations, whose security teams often wear multiple hats, are now navigating national security issues, supply chain risks, vulnerability management, and cyber threats. At the same time, because of a lack of resources and expertise, they often struggle to build cybersecurity programs, especially programs to protect operational technology.

Governments and large infrastructure providers are heavily investing in industrial cybersecurity, but small utilities that deliver critical services to the majority of people haven’t been able to do the same. Their resource constraints are uniquely challenging because their budgets are not only smaller, but often they face other restrictions, such as regulation by public utility commissions which assess expenses and determine allowability of cost recovery for investments such as cybersecurity costs. They often don’t have the resources to buy foundational tools, like the Dragos Platform, to help defend their infrastructure. The Dragos Community Defense Program aims to change this by helping these organizations build the critical cyber protections they need to defend communities against potentially destructive industrial cyber attacks and ensure our communities have clean water and power.

The Dragos Community Defense Program

The Dragos Community Defense Program gives under-resourced US-based utility providers with under $100M in annual revenue access to Dragos products that provide the foundation for building and growing their operational technology cybersecurity programs, improving their security posture, and reducing operational technology cyber risk. This includes:

Free Dragos Platform software that provides operational technology network visibility and monitoring, including asset visibility and inventory, threat detection, vulnerability management, threat hunting, and more
Enrollment in Neighborhood Keeper, our collective defense solution
Membership in OT-CERT, our program that provides access to free cybersecurity resources for the industrial control system (ICS) /operational technology (OT) community
Access to Dragos Academy for Dragos Platform training as well as general ICS/OT cybersecurity training and classes

These organizations don’t need a free trial, or a one-time offer, they need reliable resources and continuous access to fundamental tools and technology. For this reason, utilities will be able to participate in the Dragos Community Defense Program and receive continuous access to the Dragos Platform, Neighborhood Keeper, and our other resources for as long as they continue to meet the eligibility requirements.

Organizations are eligible for the program if they:

are a US-based water, electric, and/or natural gas utility; and
have revenue less than $100 million or are owned by a parent company whose total revenue does not exceed $100 million.

Closing the Resource Gap in Industrial Cybersecurity

In addition to expanding the Community Defense Program, Dragos has been supporting the OT community, including under-resourced organizations, since 2022 through our OT-CERT program. OT-CERT, which has over 1,500 members in 60 countries, provides free how-to guides and demonstration videos, best practices, training, interactive working sessions, tabletop exercises, and webinars to build industrial cybersecurity expertise and address shortages of OT security skills.

The Dragos Community Defense Program is a key step to helping under-resourced utilities protect local critical infrastructure. At Dragos, we are fully committed to getting resources into the hands of operators faster so they can protect our communities. We want to get the word out to as many eligible organizations as possible and because many aren’t reading this blog today or following us on social media, we encourage you share this information with small utilities you may know.

To learn more about the Dragos Community Defense Program or to apply to become a member, visit our Community Defense Program page. Eligible utilities can also reach out to us with any questions at CDPinfo@dragos.com.