I’m pleased to announce GlobalSign’s successful completion of the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) Authorized Certification Authority accreditation audit. In compliance with a strict board certification process, Certificate Authorities pursuing NAESB certification must demonstrate to an independent auditor, that they operate and issue digital certificates against a rigorous set of requirements outlined in the NAESB Accreditation Requirements for ACAs described here https://naesb.org//materials/certification.asp.
Per NAESB, “The North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) serves as an industry forum for the development and promotion of standards which will lead to a seamless marketplace for wholesale and retail natural gas and electricity, as recognized by its customers, business community, participants, and regulatory entities.”
As part of NAESB Business Practice Standard Whole Sale Electric Quadrant (WEQ)-012- Public Key Infrastructure, ACAs must meet minimum criteria as outlined in the accreditation specification ranging from how identities are verified, private keys are protected, strength of key sizes and algorithms, validation methods to a host of requirements around auditing, logging and other operational considerations.
As an active member of NAESB WEQ-012: Cybersecurity sub-committee, I’m proud to serve beside PKI experts that represent the unique requirements of the energy sector. As a critical infrastructure sector, NAESB recognized the need for a new rigor in PKI standards to address modern day threats and adopt a risk based approach that we see fits squarely with NIST’s guidelines seen in the Cyber security framework.
As an accredited NAESB ACA, GlobalSign is one of a few CAs in a trusted network of Certification Authorities whom are authorized to supply certificates to the (WEQ) Electric Industry Registry (EIR). With ISO New England taking the lead in requiring NAESB certified certificates in their Market portal, I fully expect to see a much wider level of adoption in 2015 as other ISOs and WEQ participants follow suit.
