has been really hard for executives to put their mind around it,” he adds.

Despite the criticism by some, many industry sources believe that NERC CIP is certain have a positive impact on the cyber security of the nation’s electric power grid. “I do consider the CIP standards to be far too loosely defined,” says Eric Byres, chief technology officer at Byres Security Inc., a cyber security product provider based in Lantzville, British Columbia, Canada. “That said, however, NERC CIP is still a heck of a lot better than anything we had before,” Byres adds. “Darn it, people are at least waking up now and doing something.”

To view the accompanying article to this story,"The CIP Standards", visit www.automationworld.com/feature-4256