Energy Department Adds Rockwell Automation to Cybersecurity Testing Program

The Department of Energy has announced Rockwell Automation’s entry into the Cyber Testing for Resilient Industrial Control Systems program, tasking the company to assess critical infrastructure components for vulnerabilities.

CyTRICS is the testing arm of Energy Cyber Sense, a White House initiative to develop cybersecurity risk management capabilities and resources for the national energy sector supply chain, the Energy Department said Thursday.

Testing under CyTRICS is meant to identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited and facilitate the removal of such security flaws in future systems.

The Energy Department said it is working to connect industry and utilities with “intelligence-informed analytic capabilities at its National Laboratories” as part of CyTRICS. Rockwell, an industrial automation and digital transformation provider, is the sixth company to join the program.

Puesh Kumar, director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, said CyTRICS’ success is built on private-sector partnerships with Rockwell and other companies.

Earlier in February, Westinghouse Electric joined the program.

In 2023, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0 issued a report recommending that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard establish a similar testing capability for maritime equipment.