Accenture, Dragos, SANS Launch $10M Initiative to Defend Small US Utilities

Accenture, Dragos and the SANS Institute on Tuesday announced the Community Cyber Resilience Foundation, which aims to help under-resourced US water, electric and natural gas utilities protect their operational technology (OT) environments.

They are putting up roughly $10 million to start, a mix of funding and services. The first phase will cover up to 500 utilities, which will get free security tools, equipment, deployment help and training.

To qualify, a water, wastewater, electric or natural gas utility must be based in the US and bring in under $100 million a year. The companies estimate that this bar covers more than 50,000 organizations, or over 97% of US utilities.

Each participant gets the Dragos Platform and related services, with Accenture handling setup, integration and continued support. SANS will train utility staff in ICS/OT security so they can run their defenses internally.

The foundation will also fund the hardware needed to deploy and run the Dragos Platform. It will connect participants to a peer network of utilities that operational experience.

The companies say many small utilities struggle with limited funding, workforce shortages and aging technology, especially those serving rural or underserved communities. They also cited recent attacks on more than 100 US water systems across over a dozen states.

“Adversaries are aggressively targeting utilities, attacking the operational environments that provide life-sustaining services to millions of Americans. Yet many small operators lack the capacity to defend against these threats,” said Dragos CEO Robert M. Lee.

The foundation builds on the Dragos Community Defense Program , which gives more than 100 utilities free access to the Dragos Platform. Dragos launched that program in December 2023 for US utilities with less than $100 million in annual revenue.

The announcement comes four months after Accenture agreed to acquire a majority stake in Dragos . The deal was part of an OT cybersecurity push valued at roughly $4.1 billion.

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Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is senior managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher before starting a career in journalism in 2011. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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