How a major European electric distribution operator improved visibility, compliance, and operational resilience across 96,000 km of grid infrastructure.
A leading European electric distribution operator strengthened OT cybersecurity across its grid infrastructure, improved compliance with CIS Controls and NIS Directive requirements, and gained complete operational asset visibility using Industrial Defender.
The result was not just improved reporting. It was operational confidence.
With Industrial Defender, the organization transitioned from fragmented visibility and manual processes to continuous monitoring, automated asset discovery, configuration management, and defensible cybersecurity compliance across its operational technology environment.
The Europe-based electric distribution operator serves approximately 8 million customers across 3.9 million homes and businesses. Its infrastructure spans 25,000 square kilometres and includes more than 63,000 substations and approximately 96,000 kilometres of grid infrastructure.
As part of a broader digital transformation initiative, the organization sought to modernize operations and improve grid reliability. However, increased digitalization introduced new cybersecurity risks.
The organization wanted to extract value from operational data and improve decision-making across the grid — moving beyond simply collecting operational data to actively using it to understand risk, performance, and system reliability. This enables more confident, data-driven decision-making grounded in continuously validated information rather than assumptions.
The utility aimed to align cybersecurity practices across operational and information technology environments — eliminating gaps that can exist between the two. Instead of managing OT and IT as separate domains, the utility gains a unified view of assets, risks, and security controls across the entire environment, improving coordination and ensuring threats are identified before they impact operations.
The organization needed open APIs and data sharing capabilities to support modernization initiatives — enabling secure integration with external partners and platforms. This allows the organization to maintain confidence that all shared data is accurate, monitored, and aligned with cybersecurity and compliance requirements.
The operator had been using Industrial Defender since 2012 to monitor components of its Advanced Distribution Management System — including more than 200 assets across control centers, data centers, and regional distribution operations. As cybersecurity requirements increased, the organization expanded to the full platform.
Industrial Defender provides deep asset intelligence across operational environments, enabling utilities to identify risks and manage cybersecurity proactively.
The platform includes out-of-the-box reporting aligned to major cybersecurity frameworks, including CIS Controls and NIS Directive requirements.
Industrial Defender monitors configuration changes, software updates, and user activity across critical infrastructure in real time.
Industrial Defender engineers provided customized dashboards, training and documentation, periodic reporting, and risk analysis guidance — accelerating deployment and maximizing value.
Industrial Defender integrated with the utility's SIEM environment, allowing correlation between OT asset intelligence and broader cybersecurity operations — improving threat detection and reducing response time.
The Industrial Defender platform enabled the organization to strengthen cybersecurity across eight operational domains.
Together, these capabilities created a unified OT cybersecurity platform — delivering continuous visibility, automated monitoring, and audit-ready compliance across the utility's entire operational environment.
The organization established a single source of truth across operational assets, including servers, firewalls, control systems, and workstations. This centralized visibility allowed cybersecurity teams to identify risks faster and reduce blind spots across their environment.
Industrial Defender enabled automated asset inventory discovery, ensuring that new devices and changes were continuously tracked without manual intervention.
The utility implemented automated configuration monitoring to detect changes that could signal unauthorized activity or security degradation.
Industrial Defender provided built-in reporting aligned to major frameworks, enabling the utility to continuously monitor compliance and demonstrate regulatory alignment with confidence.
The organization gained comprehensive visibility into security events across its environment, strengthening cybersecurity posture and improving response capabilities.
Electric utilities face increasing cybersecurity threats alongside rapid grid modernization. Industrial Defender addresses these challenges by shifting utilities from reactive cybersecurity to proactive risk management.
