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Company implements next generation firewalls in order to segregate different environments. Solutions will be essential for consolidation and expansion of the distributor’s Smart Grid project in Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil, September 8, 2016 - Cisco supports part of the new AES Eletropaulo security technologies, the largest distributor of energy in Brazil and one of the largest in Latin America. The company moved ahead and implemented next generation firewalls, VPN, switches and high-capacity routers in order to segregate different environments and enable new solutions such as Smart Grid.

Implemented by PromonLogicalis, a Cisco partner, the project sought a topology that would provide scalability and would meet the AES Brasil security requirements. The main concern was to isolate the operating perimeter, which includes the meters, substations and power distribution systems of the corporate perimeter (which includes intranet and database), also allowing a secure connection with the web or with ERPs (administrative systems).

On the basis of the project, Cisco® ASA firewalls were used to provide more protection to advanced threats and visibility into data traffic, ensuring that the access to the substations’ environment is allowed only to the SCADA systems (supervision, control and data acquisition). SCADA systems are used by COD (AES Eletropaulo Distribution Operation Center) on transmission and monitoring of power loads.

The project also included ISR routers and Cisco VPN technology for connectivity and the confidentiality of third party information, Cisco Nexus® switches for private cloud connection, and switches of the families 50X and 6500 for connecting servers and WAN networks. With the new architecture, the AES Eletropaulo communication is encrypted, passing through at least two layers of firewalls equipped with IPS (Intrusion Prevention System).

“Through the increasing integration between the automation and technology, the electricity sector system can face cyber threats”, said Antônio Narvaez, IT Director at AES Brasil. “It is necessary to implement solutions, tools and processes that provide visibility, protection and rapid mitigation to the electricity sector, and this integration can occur safely", he says.

A managed services layer supported 24/7 is provided by PromonLogicalis, responsible for the management of policies and equipment licenses, as well as incident analysis and the project overall integration. "As AES Eletropaulo networks already were from Cisco, the integration was a big differential. And even solutions that need to interoperate with other vendors' systems work very well, allowing PromonLogicalis support the operation with robustness and flexibility", says Felipe Jordão, Security Expert at PromonLogicalis.

Protection for the investment and innovation: Smart Grid

The new security architecture will be essential for consolidation and further expansion of the AES Eletropaulo Smart Grid project. Launched in 2014 in the city of Barueri, São Paulo metropolitan region, the project foresees the installation of 62,000 smart meters, directly impacting 250,000 people. The technology will allow a new form of power grid management with the operations’ automation and capacity planning of AES Eletropaulo.

"More than a necessary item resulting from digitization, security is now an ‘innovation enabler’, allowing organizations to protect the investment made in developing new solutions", said Ghassan Dreibi, Security Business Development at Cisco Latin America. "But it is clear that the energy sector is particularly sensitive to attacks: as in traditional networks the losses are financial, in automation they can impact the entire population", he explains.

Due the complexity and the dynamics of the Smart Grid project, AES Eletropaulo foresees that soon in a period of three years, an upgrade will be done with new features for security solutions - even because of the ever increasing demand for new energy services.