Energy Impact Partners
Kevin C. Fitzgerald is Partner and Chief Utility Officer at Energy Impact Partners, one of the largest ESG venture capital platforms in the world with over two billion dollars of assets under management. EIP is a proud lead investor in Dragos since their Series A financing (the first stage of venture capital funding) in 2017. Dragos participated in two Public Utilities Fortnightly videos in the spring, “Cybersecurity 101 for Everyone” and “In Cybersecurity, It Takes a Neighborhood” which can be viewed at the Videos tab of fortnightly.com.
While the threat of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure has always been top of mind for the electric sector, the events and headlines in the first half of this year raised the awareness about our exposure. From the Oldsmar water attack in Florida, the first ever cyberattack aimed at injuring people on American soil, to the ransomware attacks on the Colonial Pipeline, leading to fuel shortages up and down the east coast, cyber threats are materially impacting American lives.
For years, most cybersecurity efforts and initiatives have been focused on enterprise information technology networks. And utilities have kept apace, increasing the security posture of those environments.
However, it is the operational technology, OT, networks that contain our industrial control systems, ICS, which are vital for operations. Seeing the need for our industry to level-up its OT security posture in 2017, we invested in Dragos, a small startup out of Maryland. Its technology platform provides critical infrastructure customers with unprecedented visibility, insight, and threat detection capabilities across their OT networks.