Readiness & control-gap assessment
An assessment of your current state against applicable CIP requirements, with findings tied to specific requirements and a prioritized view of what to close first.
NERC CIP readiness & advisory
NERC CIP readiness from someone who has run security inside a CIP-regulated utility.
Cyberneza's NERC CIP readiness and advisory services are informed by Larry Downard's direct NERC CIP experience as the U.S. lead endpoint security engineer within a major electric-utility environment — implementing and operating the technical controls the standards require, inside an environment governed by them. That is the difference between an advisor who has read CIP and one who has worked under it.
Readiness and advisory only · Senior-led delivery · Veteran-owned
The problem
CIP programs rarely fail on intent. They fail on evidence.
Most electric-sector organizations know what the standards require. The difficulty is sustaining proof of it: controls drift between audit cycles, configuration baselines fall out of step with what is actually running, and the documented process describes a state the environment left months ago. The gap that surfaces during an audit is usually not a missing control — it is a control nobody can currently evidence.
That gap is an engineering problem before it is a documentation problem. Closing it means understanding how the systems are actually built and operated, not just how they were described. That is the perspective we bring.
What we do
NERC CIP readiness and advisory support
Every item below is work we can do with you directly — not a checklist handed over at the end. The through-line is operating experience: these are controls we have implemented and run, in an environment that had to evidence them.
Technical-control implementation guidance
Practical guidance on implementing and operating the technical controls behind the requirements — informed by having run them, not only assessed them.
Endpoint security & architecture alignment
Endpoint protection, configuration baselines, patch and vulnerability workflow, logging, and the architecture decisions that determine whether those controls are sustainable.
Remediation planning
A sequenced remediation plan with owners and effort estimates, prioritized by requirement exposure rather than by whatever is easiest to fix.
Policy, procedure & control documentation
Documentation that reflects how the environment actually operates — the version that survives scrutiny, rather than a template describing an idealized program.
Evidence preparation & audit readiness
Assembling and organizing the evidence that demonstrates controls are operating, and preparing your team for the questions that follow.
Ongoing advisory support
Retained advisory between audit cycles, so control drift and evidence gaps are caught early rather than discovered under deadline.
Where this comes from
Direct experience inside a CIP-regulated environment
Cyberneza's NERC CIP readiness and advisory services are informed by Larry Downard's direct NERC CIP experience as the U.S. lead endpoint security engineer within a major electric-utility environment — enterprise-level endpoint-security leadership inside an environment governed by NERC CIP requirements, spanning technical-control implementation, security architecture, and operational readiness.
That experience sits alongside 29 years across federal defense programs and large-scale enterprise environments, including security architecture leadership and endpoint security operations at scale. More about the founder's background →
How it works
How an engagement runs
1 · Scoping call
A free 30-minute call to understand your environment, your drivers, and where the pressure is.
2 · Readiness assessment
A fixed-fee assessment against applicable requirements, with findings, evidence gaps, and severity.
3 · Remediation roadmap
A prioritized plan your team can execute, with the documentation and evidence work sequenced in.
4 · Ongoing advisory
Optional retained support to keep controls operating and evidence current between cycles.
FAQ
Common questions
What does a readiness engagement actually produce?
A control-by-control picture of where you stand, the evidence gaps behind each finding, and a sequenced remediation plan your own team can execute — plus the documentation that makes the program defensible when someone asks for proof.
How is this different from a compliance consultant?
Most CIP advisory is documentation work: someone reads the standards and assesses your environment against them. We come at it from having implemented and operated the controls — endpoint protection, configuration baselines, patching, logging — inside a utility that had to evidence them. That changes what we can fix, not just what we can find.
Do you perform NERC CIP audits?
No. Cyberneza does not conduct NERC or Regional Entity compliance audits — NERC and the applicable Regional Entity perform compliance monitoring and enforcement activities under the CMEP, including audits, spot checks, and self-certification review. We prepare you for that process and support you through it, which is what keeps us on your side of the table.
How does this relate to your other work?
The underlying capability is the same one behind our CMMC and NIST 800-171 and ISO 27001 practices: scope it accurately, implement controls that hold, and produce evidence that survives review. See all frameworks →
Do you work with vendors and suppliers to registered entities?
Yes. Supply-chain security expectations flow down, and vendors are increasingly asked to evidence their own controls. That work is well within scope.
Scope of role. Cyberneza provides readiness, remediation, documentation, technical-control, and evidence support. Compliance monitoring and enforcement — audits, spot checks, and self-certification review — are performed by NERC and the applicable Regional Entity under the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program (CMEP), and formal determinations on NERC registration or applicability sit with your Regional Entity and your counsel. Cyberneza does not guarantee compliance or audit outcomes; our role is to assess readiness accurately, help close identified gaps, and prepare the organization for independent review. Authoritative program references: NERC Reliability Standards and NERC Compliance & Enforcement.
Talk through your CIP program
Tell us where you are — an upcoming audit, a finding you need to close, or a program that has drifted — and we'll recommend a right-sized starting point.
- Email: info@cyberneza.com
- Location: Orlando, Florida (serving clients nationwide)