Dragos Expands Defense Program for Small Utilities

Dragos has expanded its Dragos Community Defense Program to help small water, gas, and electric utilities in the U.S. protect their networks from advanced threats. Threat actors are increasingly targeting critical infrastructure networks, and small utilities are outgunned when it comes to defending themselves.

The program, which launched in 2022, is now open to water, electric, or natural gas utilities with less than $100 million in annual revenue. Utilities owned by a parent company with total revenue less than $100 million can also take part. The program gives under-resourced utilities access to Dragos products for free — namely the Dragos Platform software, enrollment into the Neighborhood Keeper service, membership in OT-CERT, and access to Dragos Academy for training materials. Dragos Platform software provides operational technology network visibility and monitoring, including asset visibility and inventory, threat detection, vulnerability management, and threat hunting.

OT-CERT, which has over 1,500 members in 60 countries, provides free how-to guides and demonstration videos, best practices, training, interactive working sessions, tabletop exercises, and webinars to help members build on their industrial cybersecurity expertise and improve their OT security skills.

"[Because] of a lack of resources and expertise, they often struggle to build cybersecurity programs, especially programs to protect operational technology," said Dragos CEO Robert M. Lee in a statement. "These organizations don't need a free trial or a one-time offer. They need reliable resources and continuous access to fundamental tools and technology."