As the world moves further toward Internet-based transactions and computer-driven networks, computer security is becoming an increasingly important component of sustainability. We have rigorous cyber security measures in place at AEP. Among the risks to the company are harm to the power grid; theft of data, including employee or customer personal information; and the unauthorized use of our computer resources.

Network perimeter protection with firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems and Internet content filtering provide an excellent first line of defense. We augment these with desktop and laptop computer versions of anti-virus and intrusion prevention. To better protect our business and personal information, we have implemented mobile computer data encryption and will complete an e-mail encryption project in 2009.

Other projects such as Identity and Access Management address the need for centralized access controls and more efficient access management throughout the company. We continue to pursue new security technology solutions, design repeatable and sustainable business data protection processes and give our employees the knowledge and security awareness that is critical to maintaining network security.

AEP has strong governance dedicated to compliance, including the FERC-approved reliability standards. Following the 2003 blackout, the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized creation of an Electric Reliability Organization under the FERC’s oversight. NERC became the Electric Reliability Organization in the United States and Canada and has focused efforts to establish uniform reliability standards for the bulk electric system across North America. In 2007, NERC delegated authority for enforcement to eight regional groups. Compliance with these regulations is overseen at the executive level.

We continually conduct self-assessments of activities supporting these reliability standards and have self-reported a few incidents of noncompliance to the appropriate regional organization. As part of this self-reporting process, we have developed and put in place plans to correct the issues that were identified.