• Cybersecurity Special Report  

• NRECA Cybersecurity Resources Summary  

• NRECA Research's proposals to DOE's Rural & Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity (RMUC) Program cover two important areas of cybersecurity for co-ops— supporting a secure cybersecurity community and providing cooperative staff training. Co-ops are strongly encouraged to sign-up by the deadline of May 3, 2024 to participate in the proposals and be eligible to benefit from awarded funding.  

• The Co-op Cyber Goals program is comprised of 10 cybersecurity goals aimed at helping co-ops work toward achieving high priority security measures and creating a benchmark for the implementation of basic cybersecurity fundamentals.  

• NRECA Research's Threat Analysis Center (TAC) is a technology platform that enables a community, empowering the co-ops to focus on the cyber threats that matter, respond quickly with the necessary expertise, and engage with the broader intelligence community without sacrificing privacy.  

• The RC3 program was a 3-year effort with DOE that produced tools and resources still available to co-ops, like the RC3 Self-Assessment Toolkit and guidebooks, for improving cybersecurity capabilities of electric cooperatives, as well as providing collaboration, education, and training opportunities.  

• NRECA offers a course for electric cooperative directors focused on the board's cybersecurity oversight responsibilities: Cybersecurity: The Board's Oversight Role (BLC 927.1)  

• NRECA staff present on cybersecurity at events throughout the year. View upcoming events and resources from past events.  

Below are just a few of the federal funding opportunities available to electric cooperatives. This list will be updated as more opportunities are made available.
 

• Infrastructure Law Funding Opportunities: This fact sheet provides an overview of the funding opportunities available in the bipartisan infrastructure legislation. More information can be found on our Infrastructure Resource Hub.
  
  NRECA has established co-op consortia to maximize potential access to certain funding opportunities and build momentum behind co-op efforts. Five consortia are currently available, including one specific to cybersecurity funding opportunities. Members are invited to sign-up to participate. Questions? Contact: Ryan Newlon, Ryan.Newlon@nreca.coop.  

• The 100-Day Program resulted from a cooperative agreement between NRECA and the DOE, operated through National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), to help rural electric cooperatives deploy cyber and cyber-physical solutions.  

• Software Bill of Materials (SBOM): NRECA has initiated a pilot project with member co-ops to study the application of SBOM for electric co-ops and develop an approach that benefits co-ops of all sizes.  

• Analytics: NRECA and its member coops are engaged in analytical research to address cybersecurity issues. Current work is focused on inverter cybersecurity and big data methods for identifying and reporting cyberattacks.  

• VARS: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with the support of NRECA is leading the DOE cybersecurity research project Verification and Validation Assuring Reliability and Security (VARS). VARS will be an online, publicly available framework that will assist in the calculation of risk metrics of products and vendors.  

• This fact sheet outlines electric cooperative priorities for protecting the nation's electric power grid, key government and industry partnerships, current regulatory environment and NRECA positions on cyber and physical security issues.  

• CEO-led Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) serves as the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry on national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure. The ESCC includes CEOs and executives from electric companies, public power utilities, and rural electric cooperatives, as well as their trade association leaders, who represent all segments of the industry.  

• Cybersecurity poses a number of legal risks for electric cooperatives. To help navigate these legal risks, NRECA has prepared the RC3 Legal Guidebook.  

• NRECA also frequently addresses cybersecurity legal risks at its legal seminars throughout the year, and in the NRECA Legal Reporting Service.