Is NESCO redundant?

Jan. 24, 2011

EnergySec has been funded by DOE to be the electric industry national cyber security organization (NESCO).  NESCO’s website http://www.energysec.org/nesco states it will have interest groups, information sharing, etc. What exactly is the difference between NESCO’s scope and ICSJWG? Why is NESCO duplicating efforts with the NERC Control System Security Working Group (CSSWG) and other organizations? If the only unique aspect of NESCO is its focus on the electric industry, why they are not jointly working with DHS?

EnergySec has been funded by DOE to be the electric industry national cyber security organization (NESCO).  NESCO’s website http://www.energysec.org/nesco states it will have interest groups, information sharing, etc. What exactly is the difference between NESCO’s scope and ICSJWG? Why is NESCO duplicating efforts with the NERC Control System Security Working Group (CSSWG) and other organizations? If the only unique aspect of NESCO is its focus on the electric industry, why they are not jointly working with DHS? There should not be a separate organization when electric systems are so similar to those used throughout the industrial infrastructure.  Bottom line- why is our tax money being spent twice?

Caveat- I was not involved in any of the groups that made proposals to DOE so there are no sour grapes on the selection of EnergySec.

Joe Weiss

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