Communication in NERC CIP: What Energy Sector Teams Need to Know About Comms Compliance

Organizations in the energy sector must comply with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) security standards. These standards are essential to maintaining the security of the U.S. and Canadian electric power grid, as they provide cybersecurity frameworks for organizations to follow. Part of these standards provides rules for communications that organizations must follow to remain compliant and safeguard their communications from bad actors.

To achieve or maintain NERC CIP Compliance, it’s essential to understand communication standards—and what features to focus on for NERC CIP-compliant communication software. Let’s take a look.

What Is NERC CIP?

NERC CIP is a set of cybersecurity standards developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. These standards are designed to safeguard the bulk electric system across North America by protecting critical infrastructure against cyber threats. NERC CIP outlines requirements for securing assets, managing access, responding to incidents, and maintaining secure communication between control centers.

What NERC CIP Communication Standards Do Energy Teams Need to Follow?

NERC CIP standards require energy organizations to establish, monitor, and protect communication protocols across control centers and critical infrastructure environments. Secure, reliable, and auditable communications are core components of these regulations, particularly in the following areas:

• Access Control (CIP-007): CIP-007 requires that high-impact and medium-impact BES cyber systems enforce the authentication of interactive user access. Access control tools ensure compliance by verifying that only authorized users can interact with sensitive systems or data. These access controls may include, but aren’t limited to, authentication servers, log monitoring and alerting systems, and firewalls.
• Incident Response (CIP-008): According to CIP-008, compliant organizations must have an incident response plan to reduce the risk of cybersecurity incidents. Alongside having an incident response plan, an organization should invest in communication systems that enable quick, traceable communication during cybersecurity incidents. After the cybersecurity threat has been eliminated, organizations must retain logs and message history to properly document the threat and their response to it.
• System Integrity (CIP-010): CIP-010 focuses on change management and vulnerability assessments to ensure companies can properly manage system changes and identify weaknesses. As part of the standards for software integrity verification, organizations must perform integrity checks and rigorously authenticate software sources prior to software deployment. Due to these rules, an organization’s communications platform must not compromise system baselines or introduce vulnerabilities, especially during software updates or configuration changes.
• Communication Security Between Control Centers (CIP-012): CIP-012-1 mandates that real-time monitoring and real-time assessment data exchanged between control centers must be protected from unauthorized access, tampering, or disclosure. Meeting this requirement will typically involve the use of encryption and other measures to maintain data confidentiality and integrity. CIP-012-2 provides further guidance on mitigating the risk of unauthorized disclosure and modification of data during transmission, recommending data masking and encryption as measures that can assist with compliance.

Organizations can ensure NERC CIP compliance by adopting a communication platform that offers energy sector network management tools, robust security measures, audit trails, and compliance-aligned configurations.

What Should You Look for in NERC CIP Compliant Communication Software?

The right communication platform can significantly reduce your compliance burden. When evaluating NERC CIP compliance software for communications, energy sector teams should prioritize communication platforms that support the following:

• End-to-End Encryption: A communication platform with end-to-end encryption ensures an organization’s data and messages remain secure and private during transmission between users. With encryption for data in transit and at rest, your platform will protect sensitive information from interception, reducing the risk of unauthorized access while aligning with CIP-012 requirements. 
• Detailed Audit Logs: Since CIP-008 requires organizations to document their incident response processes, a platform must include detailed audit logs as one of its key features. These logs capture all user activity, including messages and administrative actions. Maintaining log records helps demonstrate compliance, supports incident investigations, and can be used to identify weaknesses in your incident response plan and its implementation.
• Granular Access Controls: Controlling who can access sensitive data and communications is critical for complying with CIP-007. Role-based access control systems enable administrators to set granular permissions that restrict users based on job function. These controls minimize the attack surface, support personnel risk management, and reduce the risk of accidental or intentional data exposure, ensuring users have access only to the data needed for their roles.
• Changing Tracking and Vulnerability Assessment: Change tracking allows teams to record and review configuration updates and system modifications, helping you meet CIP-010 standards. Having an easy way to review changes and modifications to your system reduces configuration errors and assists with managing system integrity. Your communication platform provider should also regularly perform vulnerability assessments and promptly update the platform after a vulnerability is identified.
• Network Management Tools​: A communication platform should offer energy sector network management tools to comply with multiple NERC CIP standards. These tools can improve incident management, provide real-time network monitoring, enforce security policies, and generate audit trails and reports. They can also automate some compliance tasks, such as vulnerability assessments, change tracking, and configuration management, for easier compliance with NERC CIP standards.
• High Availability & Redundancy: Redundant systems and failover capabilities keep communications operational during outages and following successful cyberattacks. These features help maintain coordination between control centers and ensure continuity of operations when the primary systems are down or compromised by a bad actor.
• On-Premise Deployment Options: Hosting your communication platform in an on-premise environment provides full control over data and infrastructure. This approach satisfies strict compliance needs, making it easier for organizations to meet NERC CIP standards.

Collaboration tools that meet these benchmarks help teams stay compliant while also improving real-time communication, increasing operational transparency, and enhancing cybersecurity across critical systems.

How Mattermost Can Ensure Your Organization’s Communications Comply With NERC CIP Standards

Mattermost empowers energy sector organizations to modernize their communications stack while maintaining full compliance with NERC CIP mandates. With on-premise and secure cloud deployment options, user-friendly communication channels, strict security standards, role-based access controls, and granular configuration of data retention, our communication platform ensures secure operations, detailed oversight, and total control over mission-critical data.

Learn more about our communication platform for energy companies today.