DeNexus is the leading provider of cyber risk modeling for the industrial enterprise. Powered by probabilistic inference and machine learning, DeRISK is the world’s first self-adaptive software platform that using evidence-based data predicts where and how breaches are likely to occur in unique client contexts, translating that information into dollars at risk. Fortune 500 companies from power generation to manufacturing to other critical infrastructures are beginning to use DeRISK to understand their bespoke cybersecurity economics and optimize their risk-reduction ROI.
Discover the challenges we have solved for other organizations.
Utility / Renewable Portfolio
Asset
Location
Utility-scale wind & solar farms
Spain
The challenge
Understand their cyber security posture in more depth for a portfolio of renewable operating assets, wind and solar
The Operational Technology (OT) cyber landscape is undergoing radical change, putting operators of critical infrastructure in constant financial uncertainty about their risk of cyber loss. 2019 witnessed a 2,000% year-over-year increase in industrial control system cyberattacks, with the average cost of an industrial cyber breach stacking up at $13.0m vs $11.7m in 2017.
One of these critical infrastructures that is directly affected by the increase in cyber risk is the Renewable Energy sector. Our customer operates wind and solar PV generation facilities, and deployed DeRISK to better understand its exposure to cyber risks.
The solution
Provide a detailed risk assessment explaining their top cyber security risks
DeRISK’s cyber risk platform was able to provide the client a detailed risk assessment explaining their top cyber security risks for their renewable portfolio, broken down by source initial access vector and consequence type.
The results
DeRISK was able to provide the client a detailed risk assessment explaining their overall cyber exposure and top risk components, finding that the client’s portfolio has a significantly lower risk exposure compared to other power-sector peers of similar generation capacity. We provided two suggested mitigations, with which the Customer can further reduce the expected loss by 14%.
Currently the top source of probable loss is accident or carelessness, which is one of the few areas where controls are not at its strongest. In particular, a measure that would be very effective to reduce the impact of these accidents is to have routine backups on the OT side, to protect against accidental deletion or modification of key configuration files.
With these results from DeRISK, the client is aware of their cyber security posture and is able to prioritize their risk mitigation based on ROI, Risk Reduction, Upfront Cost, Yearly Cost, Payback Period, or NPV.
Expected Loss Breakdown
by Initial Access Vector
62.6%
Accident or careleness
by Type
65.4%
Equipment Damage
22.3%
Phishing
34.3%
Downtime
Expected Losses
0.7%
vs revenue
24%
Compared to industry average
Because of the nature of the customer’s operations as a renewable energy producer, an overwhelming majority of total risk comes from these top two cyber event types: (1) equipment damage and (2) business disruption / downtime makes up 99.7%.
Solar PV
Asset
Location
Utility-scale solar farm
Australia
The challenge
Understand their cyber security posture in more depth for one operating solar project
The Operational Technology (OT) cyber landscape is undergoing radical change, putting operators of critical infrastructure in constant financial uncertainty about their risk of cyber loss. 2019 witnessed a 2,000% year-over-year increase in industrial control system cyberattacks, with the average cost of an industrial cyber breach stacking up at $13.0m vs $11.7m in 2017.
One of these critical infrastructures that is directly affected by the increase in cyber risk is the Renewable Energy sector. Our customer operates solar PV generation facilities, and deployed DeRISK in one of them located in Australia, to better understand its exposure to cyber risks.
The solution
Provide a detailed risk assessment explaining their top cyber security risks
DeRISK’s cyber risk platform was able to provide the client a detailed risk assessment explaining their top cyber security risks for their solar facility, broken down by source initial access vector and consequence type.
The results
DeRISK was able to provide the client a detailed risk assessment explaining their overall cyber exposure and top risk components, finding that the project ranks in the top quartile of its industry peers on cyber maturity. The top source of probable loss is drive-by and watering hole, and thus the area where further protection measures should be prioritized.
Currently the cyber risk is well spread amongst different attack vectors, and thus it is more effective for further protection measures to be focused in stopping more advanced steps of the attack, such as privilege escalation. Results show that there are inexpensive and cost-effective measures to reduce this risk, such as reproducing the password protection policies that the customer has implemented on the IT side on the OT network as well.
With these results from DeRISK, the client is aware of their cyber security posture and is able to prioritize their risk mitigation based on ROI, Risk Reduction, Upfront Cost, Yearly Cost, Payback Period, or NPV.
Expected Loss Breakdown:
by Initial Access Vector
26.8%
Drive-by & Watering hole
by Type
51.7%
Equipment Damage
21.6%
Spear-phishing
42%
Downtime
Expected Losses
1%
vs revenue
39%
Compared to industry average
Because of the nature of the customer’s operations as a renewable energy producer, an overwhelming majority of total risk comes from these top two cyber event types: (1) equipment damage and (2) business disruption / downtime makes up 93.7%.
Solar PV
Asset
Location
Utility-scale solar farms
Spain
The challenge
Understand their cyber security posture in more depth for two operating solar projects
The Operational Technology (OT) cyber landscape is undergoing radical change, putting operators of critical infrastructure in constant financial uncertainty about their risk of cyber loss. 2019 witnessed a 2,000% year-over-year increase in industrial control system cyberattacks, with the average cost of an industrial cyber breach stacking up at $13.0m vs $11.7m in 2017.
One of these critical infrastructures that is directly affected by the increase in cyber risk is the Renewable Energy sector. Our customer owns and operates solar PV generation facilities, and deployed DeRISK in two of them located in Spain, to better understand its exposure to cyber risks.
The solution
Provide a detailed risk assessment explaining their top cyber security risks
DeRISK’s cyber risk platform was able to provide the client a detailed risk assessment explaining their top cyber security risks for their solar facilities, broken down by source initial access vector and consequence type.
The results
DeRISK was able to provide the client a detailed risk assessment explaining their overall cyber exposure and top risk components, finding that the projects have a higher risk exposure compared to other power-sector peers of similar generation capacity. The top source of probable loss is web facing apps and external remote services, and thus the area where further protection measures should be prioritized.
Results show that there are inexpensive and cost-effective measures to reduce this risk, such as implementing policies that enforce all passwords are hardened and unique, and that all default passwords are changed. Furthermore, measures that greatly reduce the risk but that require a higher initial investment, such as deploying an application-layer filtering proxy server to ensure that all network traffic to or from the Internet is authorized.
With these results from DeRISK, the client is aware of their cyber security posture and is able to prioritize their risk mitigation based on ROI, Risk Reduction, Upfront Cost, Yearly Cost, Payback Period, or NPV.
Expected Loss Breakdown:
by Initial Access Vector
52.6%
Web facing App
by Type
50.1%
Donwtime
19.2%
Phishing
26.2%
Equipment damage
Expected Losses
1.8x
Compared to industry average
Because of the nature of the customer’s operations as a renewable energy producer, an overwhelming majority of total risk comes from these top two cyber event types: (1) business disruption / downtime and (2) equipment damage makes up 76.2%.