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Why Participate?

In addition to protecting our critical infrastructure and supporting reliability of service for member-consumers, setting goals and committing to taking action in regards to cybersecurity:

  • Advances your co-op's cybersecurity posture with specific recommended measures

  • Helps create a culture of cybersecurity with both a top-down (CEO) and bottom-up approach (Employees)

  • Provides clear initiative to gain the support of your board and staff

  • Helps to prioritize cyber tasks and enhance decision making skills

  • Guides co-op staff to work collaboratively in improving the co-op's security maturity

  • Shows measurable progress to motivate employees

  • Provides you the means to publicize your achievement to support consumer-member confidence

  • Documents demonstrated effort by co-ops to advance cybersecurity of our electric grid



How the Program Works

We invite all NRECA member co-ops to sign up to participate in NRECA's Co-op Cyber Goals Program.

When you sign up, you will receive a unique website link to your own participation tracking site. There you will find a listing of the 20 recommended cybersecurity goals, along with valuable resource recommendations to support your achievement of each goal. As your co-op completes each goal, you can return to your tracking site and gauge your progress.

The goals are divided into two Levels:

  • Level One: 10 goals established for the launch of NRECA's Co-op Cyber Goals Program in January 2023.
  • Level Two: 10 goals debuted in June 2024 to provide additional ways for co-ops to advance their cybersecurity posture.

When you have completed each Level of goals, you will receive a digital badge that you can use to announce your achievement on your website and social media. You will also receive an award that you can display at your co-op. In addition, all co-ops who complete a Level will be invited to the next annual NRECA Co-op Cyber Tech conference to be formally acknowledged in a special ceremony.


Level One Goals:
  • Goal 1: Cybersecurity Point of Contact
  • Goal 2: Self-Assessment
  • Goal 3: Contract Review
  • Goal 4: Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Goal 5: Default Password Policy
  • Goal 6: Leadership Training
  • Goal 7: Employee Training
  • Goal 8: IT/OT Segmentation
  • Goal 9: Cyber Incident Response Plan
  • Goal 10: Data Backups
Level Two Goals:
  • Goal 11: Separate User Accounts and Permissions
  • Goal 12: Asset Inventory
  • Goal 13: Logging
  • Goal 14: Internet-Facing Systems
  • Goal 15: Business Continuity Plan
  • Goal 16: Information Sharing
  • Goal 17: Endpoint Security
  • Goal 18: Unique Passwords
  • Goal 19: Network Topology

  • Goal 20: Unauthorized Devices

The goals in this Program are of equal importance. They do not need to be considered in any certain order. The numbering is solely for identifying them in the Co-op Cyber Goals Program. NRECA encourages cooperatives to complete all of the goals in the Program.

Find out answers to frequently asked questions in this Fact Sheet:
 
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Get Started Today!

Here's how to participate in NRECA’s Co-op Cyber Goals Program:

  1. Sign up online to make a voluntary commitment to complete the Co-op Cyber Goals, and receive a link to your co-op’s unique tracking page.

  2. Download the one-page summary of each Co-op Cyber Goal.

  3. Take action to complete each goal, using the provided related resources.

  4. Return to your tracking page when each goal is achieved and check off that goal until all goals are completed.

  5. When you are done with all 10 goals in a Level, submit your finished tracking page and receive your digital badge and commemorative coin to announce your achievement! You will also be invited to be recognized at our next Co-op Cyber Tech conference.

NEED ASSISTANCE IN COMPLETING A CO-OP CYBER GOAL?
NRECA’s Cybersecurity Team is available to help. Contact us at membersecurity@nreca.coop.

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      Questions about NRECA’s Co-op Cyber Goals Program?



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