Genesis Energy Secures New Zealand’s Renewable Energy Against Removable Media Threats with OPSWAT

The energy sector is becoming a primary target of cyberattacks internationally, with an estimated cybercrime cost of 10.5 trillion dollars between 2020 and 2025. Recorded attacks in countries outside New Zealand in recent years led to concerning consequences, including leaving 600 apartment buildings with no heat for two days and idling a power plant for three weeks. 

Genesis Energy acknowledged these modern cybersecurity challenges posed a threat to its own critical infrastructure and decided to take proactive steps towards establishing a more robust security posture.

To learn more about their journey, we sat down with Adam Whitmore, Engineering Manager; Jane Bydder, Engineering Projects General Manager; and Geoff Bard, Network and Infrastructure Admin at Genesis Energy. They spoke to us about why and how they chose to deploy OPSWAT solutions, and how the solutions strengthened the organization’s security posture. 

Adam stated that the complexity of modern OT systems led them to realize the urgent need to have visibility of what was entering their systems. As a result, they sought effective malware prevention solutions as part of a wider initiative to maintain availability and support electricity generation. 

During the evaluation phase of one of the projects within the scope of this initiative, OPSWAT stood out with its proven track record and the online testimonials from other critical energy and utility providers across the globe. This helped Genesis Energy choose OPSWAT with confidence.   

Jane pointed out that MetaDefender Kiosk closed the removable media security gap and increased employees' confidence about bringing files into their systems. It helped them keep systems updated by using scanned and sanitized removable media. 

With MetaDefender Kiosk deployment establishing a line of defense against removable media threats, the transient devices security gap was yet to be filled.

In addition, Geoff mentioned that MetaDefender Drive is used to scan devices in remote locations, where cybersecurity infrastructure is out of reach, and to overcome server limitations. 

Metascan™ Multiscanning scans files with over 30 anti-malware engines that achieve detection rates greater than 99%. Paired with heuristics and machine learning, it detects unknown malware that single antivirus engines often fail to catch. 

File-Based Vulnerability Assessment detects known vulnerabilities in more than 20,000 software applications with its patented file-based approach. With 3+ million data points and 30,000 associated CVEs, it can check software for known vulnerabilities before installation, when devices are at rest, and while applications are running.