Midwest
ISO
Independent Transmission Operator
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Client
Profile
The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc., also
known as "Midwest ISO" or "MISO", is the nation's first Regional
Transmission Organization (RTO) approved by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Midwest ISO is based in Carmel,
Indiana, and is responsible for monitoring the electric
transmission system that delivers power from generating plants to
wholesale power transmitters (the entities that deliver power to
distribution companies that, in turn, deliver power to residential
and commercial customers). The Midwest ISO's role is to ensure
equal access to the transmission system and to maintain or improve
electric system reliability in the Midwest.
Executive
Summary
The scope of work provided by DYONYX consisted of a number of
specific Tasks as described below:
Task 1:
Given a set of IP address ranges and phone number listings,
determine what hosts or devices are visible externally to Midwest
ISO and what phone lines have devices that are set to auto answer;
additionally, through a search of the Internet for any documents
published by Midwest ISO posted on Internet search engines, forums,
blogs, or any other miscellaneous websites, identify any
confidential or sensitive documents that may be published or cached
on public Internet sites;
Task 2:
Conduct penetration testing to determine vulnerabilities that were
not detected in Task 1;
Task 3:
Drill down into key systems identified in prior phases to discover
vulnerabilities to these systems and devices; explore possible
vulnerabilities at several levels including but not limited to the
networking, operating system, server, security and application
levels; and,
Task 4:
Provide a comprehensive and detailed report of the findings
discovered in the previous phases. The DYONYX team delivered a
comprehensive report detailing the findings listed above.
Subsequent to the completion of these Tasks, DYONYX provided a
detailed vulnerability assessment of the Midwest ISO Market Portal
System. Considerable insight was provided concerning the
development processes and techniques to remove the existing
vulnerabilities.
To learn more, visit www.dyonyx.com
Client Profile
El Paso Electric Company (EPE) is a medium sized integrated
electric utility operating in the Rio Grande Valley in west Texas
and southern New Mexico with over 347,000 customers. With
approximately 1,000 employees, EPE has an installed net generation
capacity of 1,500 MW including about 16% interests in the Palo
Verde nuclear plant. While EPE is moderate in size when compared to
many corporations, as an electric utility, the technology
infrastructures are very complex incorporating real-time systems,
large customer databases, multi-layered geographic information
systems, communication and dispatch systems, and comprehensive
facilities management systems all supporting the delivery of
electricity to the customers. This environment, coupled with the
key responsibility to operate and maintain the critical electric
grid infrastructures for the region, sets the stage for the need of
a robust set of information system infrastructures. These
infrastructures, which include hardware architecture, application
system architecture, network architecture, and supporting
organizational resources, need to incorporate appropriate
technology, integrated design concepts, and efficient processes to
meet the needs of the corporation.
Executive Summary
EPE retained the services of DYONYX to perform a cooperative
technical examination and assessment of various aspects of the
current technical environment considered by leadership to be of
high importance and worthy of focus. Our team concentrated on the
methods and support of functional interfaces for core business
applications, the design of EPE's LAN/WAN infrastructure, server
strategies and storage architecture, desktop and software
management, and secure communications.
Upon completion of this assessment DYONYX was awarded the contract
to virtualize the EPE server environment to reduce the physical
footprint required to provide current business functions while
minimizing any disruptions to the current production environment.
The intent of this consolidation was to reduce the physical
footprint only and not change the logical infrastructure design as
EPE was preparing to move their data center to a new location.
DYONYX was asked to respond to an RFP on the data center relocation
to determine if continuing to support their IT internally, hosting
their services in a third party hosting facility or fully
outsourcing all of IT was the most cost effective solution. Upon
completion of the RFP, DYONYX was requested to respond to a full
outsource RFP, which was also awarded to DYONYX.
End User Support
DYONYX provides technical personal computer, laptop and software
assistance to all EPE personnel. Service Desk Level I personnel
located in our centralized ITIL compliant Service Desk respond to
employee questions and requests for service. Software support
includes operating system, word processing, e-mail, presentation
graphics, spreadsheet, drawing, illustration, file compression,
workflow management, database, networking, web browser, and
industry specific Commercial off the Shelf (COTS)
