Case Study: Southern Company achieves continuous, audit-ready supply chain risk management with Fortress Information Security

Southern Company cuts vendor response time by 33% with Fortress Information Security

Southern Company, a regulated North American electric utility, faced the challenge of meeting its CIP-013 compliance obligations. Their existing vendor risk program relied on point-in-time assessments, which left them vulnerable to continuous threats in the supply chain, particularly from shared vendors used across the electric grid.

Fortress Information Security implemented a solution combining framework-based Vendor Control Assessments with continuous AI Monitoring. This provided Southern Company with weeks of early warning on threats, breach notifications in under an hour, and continuous risk scoring for over 2,000 vendors. The results included a 33% faster vendor response rate, a 50% reduction in control-evaluation effort, and the remediation of a critical vendor exposure within 60 days, preventing a potential incident.

Southern Company