Energy & Utilities
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Northland Power Automates Critical Vulnerability Patching
Discover how Northland Power automates vulnerability management across its entire enterprise environment with Swimlane
Use Cases
- OT Asset Inventory
- IT Vulnerability Management & Patching
- Service Ticket Management
Challenges
- Secure OT sites, offices, and data centres
- Manual operations increase system vulnerabilities
Outcomes
efficiency gain in user request handling
100
%
reduction in vulnerability patching time
30
%
About Northland Power
Northland Power is a Canadian power producer dedicated to developing, building, owning and operating power infrastructure assets globally Its portfolio includes onshore and offshore wind, solar, and some natural gas facilities, along with an electricity distribution utility. A seven-person security operations team oversees the infrastructure across 45+ locations worldwide.
This case study explores how Northland Power manages its expansive infrastructure’s security and operational complexities, ensuring renewable energy’s reliable delivery to communities worldwide by leveraging the Swimlane security automation platform.
CyberSecurity Challenges
Secure OT Sites, Offices, and Data Centres
Northland Power’s seven-person security team manages security across 45-plus locations worldwide. They ensure each site meets strict security and compliance standards, quickly detect threats, and respond to incidents. With such a small team spread supporting an organization that operates over a vast geographic area, detecting and responding to threats promptly is a constant challenge. Disruptions in the energy industry can have far-reaching consequences, from power outages to the interruption of critical services and risks to public safety.
Manual Operations Increase System Vulnerabilities
Routine tasks such as patching vulnerabilities and responding to alerts consume valuable time, diverting attention from more critical risks. Given the importance of system availability, these manual processes can slow down response times, are prone to the risk of human error and create substantial security gaps. If not addressed, relying on manual cybersecurity procedures can lead to unnecessary risk. Northland Power knew that automation was an essential part of their strategy to reduce risk.
“Protecting the organization with limited personnel on our team was the big challenge that led us to automation. Swimlane helps us increase the effectiveness and efficiency of our technology investments to ensure our security operations processes run smoothly.“
Shawn McBurnie
Head of IT/OT Security and Compliance
Northland Power Overcomes Limited Staff with Automation
McBurnie states: “Protecting the organization with limited personnel on our team was the big challenge that led us to automation. Swimlane helps us increase the effectiveness and efficiency of our technology investments to ensure our security operations processes run smoothly.“
Why Swimlane
Where Flexibility Meets Imagination
Northland Power recognizes that Swimlane automation improves their team’s efficiency and significantly enhances the capabilities of their existing tools. “One of the things that I always tell the team is that with Swimlane we’re only limited by our imagination and the capabilities of our other tools. Swimlane has helped us discover new capabilities from existing tools that aren’t known or marketed by those tools.” This synergy allows them to maximize their resources and optimize their cybersecurity environment.
Risk Management, A Key Requirement
Any tool used by Northland Power must be deployable on-premise and able to function in isolation. This is crucial for effective risk management, as it ensures that sensitive systems and data remain under control and securely protected at all times. This made Swimlane the best choice for a security automation vendor.
“One key consideration for any tool supporting our OT environments is the ability to deploy it on-premise and ensure it operates in isolation. We’ve successfully implemented Swimlane on-prem and architected it to interact securely with our OT environment.”
Quick Value Elevates Northland Power’s Efficiency
Northland Power finds Swimlane’s intuitive design to be a valuable feature. McBurnie noted, “Swimlane was the easiest security automation platform to work with, and the team was able to get the use case up and running quite quickly compared to the other tools.” Swimlane’s user-friendly and intuitive user experience helped Northland Power boost productivity and realize value quickly with minimal training and downtime.
QUICK WINS
Time Savings
30% Reduction
in vulnerability patching time
Productivity
100% Efficiency Gain
in user request handling
Future
Northland Power Unlocks the Unlimited Potential of Automation
McBurnie states: “This is really just the start of our automation journey. We know that additional savings are very possible within Swimlane as we add more use cases.”
Automate 92% of Vulnerability Remediation
Northland Power is committed to fully realizing its automation capabilities. They plan to expand their vulnerability management and patching automation to further reduce risks and enhance their overall security posture within their environment. “We expect we will automate the remediation of approximately 92% of critical vulnerabilities in our environment with Swimlane. We’ve really only started to touch the surface of that, so expanding automation will be a significant risk reduction measure for us going forward.”
Monthly Security Awareness Reports
Northland Power will soon roll out monthly security awareness reports for employees. They plan to use their tools to integrate data from various security systems, which will help show employees what steps are being taken to keep their data safe. They’ll also provide tailored tips on improving personal security practices. This initiative is expected to strengthen Northland Powers’ security awareness and training program, helping employees become more knowledgeable and proactive about cybersecurity.
“I would recommend Swimlane to my peers because it’s a vendor-agnostic tool that allows you to automate repetitive tasks, provide a method to generate consistent reporting from your tools, and even allow you to build new capabilities with a little bit of creativity across your toolset.”
Shawn McBurnie
Head of IT/OT Security and Compliance
About the customer
Shawn McBurnie
Head of IT/OT Security Compliance, Northland Power
Shawn McBurnie oversees cybersecurity and privacy at Northland Power. His team protects the company’s facilities, data, and employees from cyber threats. With nearly 10 years of experience in energy sector cybersecurity, McBurnie has been pivotal in boosting security efficiency and resilience with automation.
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