Northrop Team To Help Nuclear Plants Build Cyber Defense; Tom Franch Comments

Northrop Grumman and a Bethesda, Md.-based energy firm are partnering to help nuclear plant operators develop and implement cybersecurity plans, Northrop announced Monday.

Areva Inc., the French industrial conglomerate’s North American unit, will provide regulatory guidance and Northrop will provide plants cyber capabilities.

“Protecting the U.S. nuclear power infrastructure from exploitation and attacks of networks, systems, information and physical assets is an industry concern,” said Tom Franch, senior vice president of reactors and services at Areva.

Franch added in a release plant operators will use new instrumentation and control technology to secure their systems.

Northrop recently helped a Finmeccanica-led team test a cyber incident response program for NATO.

The alliance wants systems to protect crisis operations, static commands, article V operations, signal battalions and reaction force.