Securing the Grid: How Balbix Transformed a US Utility Company's Cybersecurity Posture

Cybersecurity for Utility companies is a complex endeavor:

Electric utility companies around the world are progressively adopting smart grid technologies to enhance their operations. As these advanced systems evolve, they bring with them the potential for increased cybersecurity vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious actors. Consequently, these companies that run large-scale electric systems are more exposed to cyber threats than ever before. The impact of cyber attacks on their operations could potentially result in large-scale power outages that would threaten the reliability of these utilities. That is why it is important for utility companies to maintain a robust set of security best practices to keep their systems secure and up to date. 

Navigating Pain Points: Cybersecurity Hurdles in a Large US Electric Utility’s Complex Environment

For this large US electric utility company- one of our customers, cybersecurity was a top priority. However, they were faced with the following risks with their cybersecurity processes:

Reputational Risk

Regulatory censure resulted in an adverse perception of the organization, in the eyes of key stakeholders and customers. This, in turn, had the potential to impact the company’s credibility and trust.

Heightened Security Risks

High breach risk due to complicated and inefficient processes related to cyber risk reduction. They struggled to reduce Mean Time to Patch (MTTP) to desired levels, leaving them vulnerable to potential cyberattacks.

Inferior Return on Investment

Lower ROI for security initiatives due to manual effort, operational inefficiencies, and suboptimal productivity.

Sharing their perspective on the situation, a top-level executive remarked:

“Due to multiple tools that were engaged for inventory and vulnerability management, we lacked overall visibility into our cybersecurity posture and had a poor understanding of the breach risk. In short, finding a cybersecurity solution to manage this complex environment was a challenge.”

Why they chose Balbix:

As evidenced by our assessment, the primary challenge within their cybersecurity environment stemmed from inadequate asset visibility. For an organization to implement effective cybersecurity management processes, comprehensive and transparent visibility is a foundational element. With Balbix’s Cyber Asset Attack Surface (CAASM) capabilities and Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (RBVM) capabilities, they could get an accurate inventory of all their assets, including devices, apps, and services, both managed and unmanaged, on-premises and in the cloud, fixed and mobile, that was automatically updated in real-time. Balbix’s solution increased their asset visibility by 30%. 

Balbix also continuously analyzed each asset across more than 100 attack vectors in real-time to identify vulnerabilities, making risk identification and mitigation workflows much more efficient. This analysis helped them identify business-critical assets and focus on the most crucial vulnerabilities. As a result, this solution helped them reduce their breach risk by 56%.

This gamified process helped them establish a standardized patching process that reduced their MTTP by 59%.

The positive experience of this electric utility company using Balbix is evident in the statement from a prominent member of its leadership team:

“Integrating Balbix into our company has given us an eye-opening view into our most pressing vulnerabilities. With the customizable dashboards, we are able to track progress on patching and other remediation measures and have decreased our breach likelihood. On top of everything, Balbix as a vendor provides constant support and assistance and works with us to ensure we have all the tools we need to perfect our vulnerability management.”

Read this case study to learn how Balbix and this Large US Utility Company worked together to leverage the Balbix platform.