Anterix Launches Unique Cybersecurity Collective For Electric Utilities – Forbes
Collective security in the digital age.
Anterix
Suppose the Wright brothers, before their first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on Dec. 17, 1903, had been able to assemble a band of suppliers interested in aviation. Things would have gone much faster. These suppliers would have included engine makers, spar manufacturers, fabric merchants, aircraft dope producers, wheel makers, aluminum smelters, radio pioneers, and sheet metal merchants.
Anterix (NASDAQ: ATEX), the innovative Woodlawn, New Jersey-based firm that is focused on moving electric utility communications to private LTE (4G) broadband networks, has done what the Wright brothers couldn’t do. The company created what it calls an “ecosystem” of LTE suppliers last May. So far, it has signed up 70 leading technology companies, which range from giants Motorola, Ericsson, and General Electric
GE
to many small ones, to support electric utilities’ switch to private broadband.
Now Anterix has taken its ecosystem concept a step further. The company has added what it calls a “collective” of cybersecurity firms — six already. Anterix believes electric utilities building out private broadband networks will want the same wealth of cybersecurity supplier options that they will have from telecommunications suppliers to the ecosystem.
The collective and its emphasis on cybersecurity comes despite the implicit cybersecurity advantages of private broadband networks.
This implicit defense results from what Chief Operating Officer Ryan Gerbrandt calls the “air gap” between an Anterix private broadband network and the internet. They simply aren’t connected, shutting off a lot of cyberattacks that come through the internet.
Security Appeal To The Utilities
This security emphasis should have immediate appeal to the utilities. I talk to a lot of CEOs, and they tell me that the one thing that keeps them up at night is cybersecurity.
In the security collective, Anterix has established a network of leading firms in the field which will provide electric utilities installing private networks additional security, taking cyber defenses to a new level.
The six founding members of the cyber collective are Mandiant, Onclave Networks, PacketViper, Q-Net Security, Qubitekk, and Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Ronald Indeck, CEO of Q-Net Security, said, “As a charter member of the Anterix active ecosystem, we are excited to take this next step with Anterix in forming the Anterix network security system. Utilities demand the strongest network cybersecurity, and we are proud to bring our data authentication to this unique collaboration.”
“Mandiant recognizes that collective and collaborative action is key to delivering comprehensive security for utilities,” said Marshall Hellman, …….