Valiant Communications Limited said that it has bagged its pilot order from the Grid Controller of India (formerly known as POSOCO) a Government of India Enterprise, for its cyber security equipment for deployment in power grid networks in India. In a regulatory filing, it stated that since Grid Controller of India is the apex body and the National Load Despatch Centre, it supervises over the Regional Load Despatch Centres and monitors the operations and grid security of the National Grid, the scale of the opportunity is large.
The selected products by the Grid Controller of India are designed on the basis of the guidelines of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on “Cyber Security in Power Sector Guidelines, 2021”. These will need to detect undetected intrusions that result from firewall breaches, the presence of trojans which can be planted or introduced from within, detect any unlawful and unwarranted activities that may already be taking place within the network that would open holes for back-door entry from within the existing firewalls resulting in a cyber-attack or ransomware attacks. The selected products also enable in creating isolation zones/ “hard isolation of OT Systems” in case of cyberattacks / ransomware-attacks or unauthorized network intrusions.
One of the selected products – the VCL-2143, Network MouseTrαp, is an advanced Honeypot and is a network security and forensics tool that enables users to detect firewall breaches and unauthorized network intrusions in their network, in near real-time.
The need for implementing an effective cyber security and counter-defence strategy becomes an utmost important aspect of protecting critical infrastructure like Thermal Power Plants, HydroElectric Generation and Transmission assets, Grid Operations as well as largely distributed renewable and power distribution infrastructure to ensure reliability and security in the National Power Grid.
Inder Mohan Sood, CEO, Valiant Communications, said “While various initiatives taken by the Government of India, under the leadership of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, such as “Aatamnirbhar Bharat”, “Make in India”, “Digital India” and “PMA Policy”, the initiatives taken by the Government of India are helping domestic manufacturers of telecom, communications, transmission, synchronization and cyber security equipment in India. This support is further helping us to take these unique and advanced cyber security solutions to the world.”