Critical Infrastructure Protection ― Violation Risk Factors

Status:
The drafting team is considering the comments received from the 30-day posting.

There are nine Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Violation Risk Factors (VRFs) that were developed as part of the Version 1 VRF project, but were missing when the set of Version 1 VRFs were posted for ballot.  The Standards Committee made a preliminary determination that these nine CIP VRFs meet the criteria for “errata” and directed staff to post these VRFs for a 30-day comment period to provide stakeholders an opportunity to identify any material impacts associated with the errata. 

• Errata are errors in approved standards that, if corrected, do not change the scope or intent of the associated approved standard and do not have a material impact on the end users of the standard. 

Purpose/Industry Need:
As NERC moves forward to become the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) and enforcement of the NERC reliability standards and the requirements contained within begins, there will be a need to determine and specify the relative risk the violation of each requirement poses to the bulk electric system.  A matrix (Violation Risk Matrix) delineating the relative risks associated with the violation of each NERC standard requirement was developed.  The Violation Risk Matrix would be used for the initial basis for determining enforcement action for future violations.