MultiSpeak®, a software standard used by utilities worldwide, has announced it is ready to test software applications for compliance with cybersecurity requirements.
MultiSpeak is the first utility software standard to include cybersecurity as part of compliance testing. The program was developed and is maintained by a collaboration of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and the 150-plus software vendors, consultants and utilities belonging to the MultiSpeak Initiative.
The MultiSpeak security standards ensure that data exchanged between applications, either internally at the utility or with outside organizations, is secure. MultiSpeak developed the cybersecurity standards in 2013; the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel approved the standards in May of 2014.
“By offering a tool for testing software cybersecurity, MultiSpeak is both helping topple one of the barriers to modernizing the nation’s electric system and helping cooperatives and other utilities handle the convergence of information technologies and operational technologies,” explains Jim Spiers, NRECA’s vice-president for business and technology strategies.
The MultiSpeak Specification is an industry-wide software standard that facilitates interoperability of diverse business and automation applications used by over 725 electric utilities in at least 19 different countries. Learn more at www.multispeak.org or www.nreca.coop
