New York Public Utility Cybersecurity
Meet New York's New Cyber Mandate, without building your own SOC.
New York's public utilities now face mandatory cybersecurity controls, 24/7 monitoring, and annual certification. FirstLight Managed SOC delivers a compliant program on day one.
What the NY law requires
Six core obligations every covered utility must meet, in plain English. No legalese.
Risk-Based Program
Document and manage cyber risk across critical IT and OT systems on a defined cadence.
24/7 Monitoring & Detection
Continuous threat detection across endpoints, network, and cloud. Not just business hours.
Vulnerability Management
Scan, test, and remediate weaknesses on a documented schedule. Including penetration testing.
Incident Response & Recovery
A tested plan to contain, recover, and report incidents quickly. Drilled, not shelved.
Access Controls & MFA
Least-privilege access and multi-factor authentication for every user and admin account.
CISO & Annual Certification
Named security leader who reports to executives and certifies compliance every year.
What this means for you
Requirements translated into outcomes IT leaders are accountable for.
Stay compliant & audit-ready
Documentation, certification, and reporting handled before the auditor arrives.
Maintain 24x7 visibility
Always-on coverage across endpoints, network, cloud, and OT environments.
Reduce risk and exposure
Find and fix vulnerabilities before they become a breach, an outage, or a headline.
Respond in real time
Contain threats in minutes with expert analysts and guided response.
Protect critical systems
Safeguard SCADA, billing, and customer data that keep service running.
Skip building a full SOC
Get enterprise-grade security without the cost, hiring, or 24-hour shift coverage.
Applies across all utilities
The mandate covers four utility types under PSC jurisdiction. Different pressures, same baseline obligations.
Electric & Gas
Highest regulatory scrutiny. Federal overlay (NERC CIP, TSA) plus state controls. Critical infrastructure exposure.
Water
Rapidly growing state focus. Often smaller IT teams, fewer internal resources, and aging operational tech.
Steam & Combined
Same core obligations apply. Mixed environments need coordinated IT and OT security coverage.
Size is not a free pass. Apart from a narrow set of small-utility thresholds, the mandate applies regardless of employee count, customer base, or revenue.
Where utilities fall short
Common gaps we see across NY utility IT environments. Each one becomes an audit finding.
No true 24/7 coverageTools generate alerts overnight, but no one is watching them.
Tools without people or processSIEM and EDR deployed, but no analysts, playbooks, or tuning.
No formal CISO ownershipSecurity responsibility split across IT, ops, and compliance roles.
Untested incident responseA plan exists on paper. It has never been exercised under pressure.
Missing audit documentationControls are in place, but evidence is scattered or out of date.
Uncertainty on certificationNo clear owner for the annual sign-off and supporting attestations.
How FirstLight closes the gap
A managed program, mapped directly to the NY PSC requirements your auditors will check.
FirstLight provides a managed path to NY PSC cybersecurity compliance, without the cost and complexity of building your own SOC.
24x7 Monitoring
Threat Detection & Response
Managed SIEM / XDR / EDR
Incident Response Support
Compliance Reporting
Ready to certify with confidence? A 30-minute conversation. No SOC build required.