Kentix creates information security for energy suppliers: As the largest municipal energy and service company in Rhineland-Palatinate, Energieversorgung Mittelrhein (evm) supplies around 128,000 customers with natural gas, 222,000 with electricity and 172,000 with drinking water. The network subsidiary Energienetze Mittelrhein GmbH & Co. KG (enm) with 550 employees is responsible for the total of 13,000 kilometers of natural gas and electricity pipelines. It is subject to the strict requirements of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) and the relevant laws and standards on information security. enm uses Kentix products to ward off potential attacks and ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of company data.
ISO 27001: A key instrument for information security and IT quality
The information security management system (ISMS) in accordance with ISO 27001 is an essential tool for enm to ensure the security and quality of its IT infrastructure. The standard specifies requirements for identifying, assessing and minimizing information security risks. It also provides a structured method for the continuous improvement of IT security and quality in organizations.
enm conducts annual audits to ensure that its information security management system (ISMS) continues to meet standards and is continuously improved. The audit checks the effectiveness of the security measures and ensures that the company fulfills its information security obligations.
Ensuring network stability: ISMS measures and Kentix solutions guarantee comprehensive protection
The ISMS therefore primarily serves to ensure long-term grid stability. As part of the established ISMS, enm has introduced processes and guidelines aimed at identifying, assessing and minimizing potential threats and risks to information and data. Technical security measures play a central role here, as they serve to protect the company’s physical and digital infrastructure. Kentix products are used by enm to ward off potential attacks and ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of company data.
Focus on granular access monitoring and early hazard detection
The challenge in the search for a physical security system was to integrate physical access to the infrastructure components into the ISMS (read more about critical infrastructure protection according to ISMS/ KRITIS) and to set up an authorization management system that documents all accesses. In addition, the company aimed to achieve early hazard detection in the event of environmental influences such as excess temperature or water ingress in order to increase information security. An early warning system also monitors fires in server rooms. The CO and CO2 content of the air and its temperature are measured for this purpose. An excessively high CO content may indicate an impending fire.
It was important to the company to use trustworthy products from Germany. During their research, the security managers came across Kentix, a manufacturer of IoT-based physical security solutions from Idar-Oberstein. Kentix was able to fulfill all requirements with regard to the current state of the art and cryptographic procedures and was therefore selected as the implementation partner. By using Kentix, the company is able to monitor access to the infrastructure more granularly and detect deviations in the environmental conditions and forward them as alarms. The system is used across all locations by the information infrastructure teams. The central documentation of access and management of authorizations significantly reduces manual processing and response times, e.g. in the event of authorization revocation. This benefits the security of the systems. The Kentix system therefore saves time in the daily workflow (read more about central documentation and administration ).
Kentix impresses with reliability, scalability and first-class support
enm is impressed by the scalability of Kentix, which ranges from small wall cabinets to large sites with multiple cabinets. The implementation of the Kentix solution went largely smoothly and was characterized by fast installation during operation. Technical support was available to solve minor problems quickly.
