Take the Power Away from Hackers

Foreign hackers target U.S. infrastructure every day—constantly coming up with new tricks and tips to get around aging security systems. Highlighting the importance for October’s recognition as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. But, even with continued education and awareness around security, aging technology is often first on a hacker’s plan of attack.

Lenoir City Utilities Board (LCUB) supplies electricity, water and natural gas to over 60,000 subscribers in southeastern Tennessee near Knoxville. They have a hard-earned reputation for ‘going the extra mile’ to serve their customers. So in 2018, the utility recognized it needed a brand-new fiber optic network to run their power grid and operations.

LCUB recognized that their aging technology just wasn’t up to the job anymore. They also needed their new network to be absolutely secure. So, they asked us at Getronics (formerly Pomeroy) to join their defense.

Getronics says…

“We help businesses design, build, and run IT networks that can constantly adapt to the latest challenges in technology,” says Daryl Atkinson, Getronics Solution Architect.

We designed LCUB’s new network around Cisco’s NCS platform, which is bad news for hackers, but good news for LCUB. With NCS, we can encrypt information at the hardware level—so no amount of software trickery can get at it. On top of the platform, we added Cisco Sourcefire firewalls, so anyone trying to get in from the outside is stopped in their tracks.

But with new technology being created all the time, we know cybersecurity is always a moving target. So, we do regular whiteboard sessions with LCUB to keep them up to date on what’s changing. We show them all our latest upgrades, innovations and ideas. And we keep them in the know on new threats and how we’re guarding against them.

So, no matter what hackers come up with next, Lenoir City Utilities Board is never in the dark—and neither are their thousands of customers.

But, the story doesn’t end there…