Presenter: Joseph D. Price

Room: Redwood Auditorium, EMU 214, Level 2

Presentation: Critical Infrastructure Resilience: How Good (or Bad) Can It Get?

Time: 01:35p – 02:05p

As attacks against critical infrastructure (CI) proliferate, industry is responding in several ways to establish and fortify defenses to prevent impacts to life-critical services. Seeing threats as merely copycat attacks of the past has us “fighting yesterday’s wars.” This presentation illuminates shifts in the CI market that make those systems more susceptible to cyberattack and a desirable target for adversaries. We explore the “worst” a cyber attacker might achieve along with the “best” ways we can prevent or limit their effects. We conclude by considering the engineering, cultural, and educational changes that must occur over the long term to combat the dynamic, asymmetric threats to the basic services that power our economy and ensure our national security.

Understand Why Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Are a Problem Now:
Examine how the market and need for growth in power, water, and transportation infrastructure has fueled opportunities for attackers to exploit these systems.

Explore Adversary Capability, Countered by Defender Skill and “Home Field Advantage”:
Learn the adversary’s mindset and their capability to sow chaos and impact CI. What are Operational Technology (OT) systems and how do I protect them from cyber attacks? Understand the adversary’s “kill chain” and how we make it harder or easier on ourselves to defend CI.

Implement Practical Strategies to Move from Defense to Resilience:
Discuss evolving with the threat rather than just responding to it. Contemplate multiple education modalities to grow the workforce of hybrid cyber defenders. Share how to “bake cyber in” from the start through concepts like Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE).