ATLANTA, Jan. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Red Clay Consulting, a leading provider of services to the utility industry, has expanded its offerings with the development of SecureGrid Cybersecurity Services. SecureGrid represents Red Clay's entry into the cybersecurity sector, and like the firm's core business, focuses on and leverages Red Clay's extensive experience with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and utilities. This experience, paired with proven cybersecurity leadership and proprietary technology, provided the foundation for a unique cybersecurity solution.
Red Clay Consulting co-founder and SecureGrid chief executive Michael Cocroft says, "our goal was to create an entirely new cybersecurity offering, not just rebrand what the rest of the industry is doing and call it 'utility-focused.' We have a unique vantage point, and we put it to effective use. We were able to involve some of our current clients to fine tune the offering. It is truly a tailored, comprehensive solution."
SecureGrid is comprised of three primary areas to secure the entire meter-to-cash lifecycle: Assess and Identify, Validate and Test, and Manage and Pursue.
Assess and Identify uses risk assessments, gap analysis and road map development to give utilities a complete view of what they currently have in place. "With the speed at which this industry operates, it can be difficult to step back and take stock of what tools are in place and gauge their efficacy. Calculating return on investment is not an easy task in cybersecurity, so many businesses don't even try." says Michael Pearson, co-founder of SecureWorks and Chief Information Security Officer of SecureGrid. "But simply being able to say there were no incidents for a period of time does not validate your spend, nor does it guarantee you are protected from future attacks."
"Understanding your organization's true cybersecurity risk exposure and getting to grips with the relevance of each different vulnerability to your business are mandatory first steps to being able to allocate resources correctly and with maximum mitigating effect." In the Validate and Test component of SecureGrid, Threat Modeling offers the ability to test networks and simulate attacks on a virtual model rather than risk actually disrupting critical network systems during testing. This is particularly useful within utilities and represents a breakthrough in the ability to secure and test without any risk of service disruption.
Paired with Threat Modeling are a group of experienced penetration testers schooled in the Red Team Penetration testing methodology and industry experts to perform true vulnerability analysis. "Our combination of seasoned professionals and superior technology allows us to produce actionable results," says Pearson.
Threat hunting, while widely used, requires expensive data storage as well as dedicated time from resources that are already stretched thin. "And in the current labor market, these resources are expensive at best, and unavailable in some markets," says Pearson. In SecureGrid's Manage and Pursue component, "our approach allows us to utilize more cost-effective storage and the capability of our toolset means fewer man hours to identify and analyze an attack."
SecureGrid offers a 24/7 alert model that can serve as a cybersecurity first line, allowing utilities professionals to focus only on alerts that matter and relieving the stress of trying to spread security resources too thinly.
About Red Clay Consulting
Red Clay, a leading technology consultancy for utilities, delivers superlative solutions in the areas of customer experience and billing, meter data management, field services, commercial billing, load profiling and settlement, and security. Red Clay offers advisory and implementation services, as well as robust managed services and training services offerings to position your utility for success every step of the way. Red Clay's unparalleled experience, expertise, and execution fuel project success. To learn more about Red Clay, visit: http://www.redclay.com.
SOURCE Red Clay Consulting
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