Montana-Dakota Utilities Deploys CipherOptics Network Encryption Solution
CipherOptics announced recently that Montana-Dakota Utilities has deployed the CipherOptics network encryption solution to protect its sensitive data and comply with NERC compliance deadlines.
Montana-Dakota Utilities (MDU) is a division of MDU Resources Group, Inc., a diversified energy company based in Bismarck, North Dakota. They provide retail natural gas and electric service to parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. With a service area that covers more than 168,000 square miles, Montana-Dakota Utilities serves about 355,000 customers.
With a NERC Reliability audit deadline looming, MDU needed to encrypt data between their primary control center, an offsite back-up control center and a third control location with a solution that could be deployed without impacting operations.
"We needed a solution that would integrate quickly into our Layer 2 network without disrupting our applications or slowing performance," explained Jason Meidinger, Engineer for Montana-Dakota Utilities. "The CipherOptics solution was so easy to set up and operate."
"We were concerned that there might be issues when running encryption with some of our propriety protocols and latency sensitive applications used within our Energy Management Systems, but we have not had a single issue," said Meidinger. "We especially like that the solution is basically invisible to the end user. That's how it should be."
CipherOptics protects sensitive information for a growing number of Utility Providers, Fortune 100 companies, financial institutions and government agencies around the world. Capable of protecting data over any Layer 2, Layer 3, or Layer 4 network, the CipherOptics Next Generation VPN solution eliminates the need for IPsec tunnels or infrastructure modifications. The solution is able to meet the demands for increased network security while maintaining the any-to-any low latency performance required by today's communication and business processing applications.
About CipherOptics
CipherOptics makes network encryption easy. Our scalable policy and key management solution and our wire-speed encryption appliances are quick to install and easy to manage. Whether you need to encrypt a single link or an entire network, our solutions offer the highest level of data protection and performance for the lowest total cost. For more information, visit CipherOptics.com.
SOURCE: CipherOptics