Joe Weiss Discusses Thursday Session at the ACS Conference

2008 Applied Control Solutions Conference Blog - Thursday Here is the Thursday agenda:

• Lessons Learned from Vendor Implementations
• Control System Forensics
• Cyber Threats to Critical Infrastructure-A Different Perspective
• Nuclear Plant Cyber Security Issues

The Thursday highlights included the FBI presentation that included the “Cone of Silence”. This led a very lively discussion on whether the FBI was actually a help or a hindrance as they go about their crime-fighting duties. We will be holding further discussions with the FBI to determine how best to address the potentially conflicting drivers of law enforcement with its need to suppress information and the need for industry to be able to get the information to protect itself. Mike Peters from FERC made his usual hair-raising, but very well-received presentation on how previous non-cyber catastrophic events could have been caused by cyber. One of Mike’s key points is assume the threat is there (frequency is 1) – address the vulnerabilities and consequence.  PNNL and NRC addressed the proposed Nuclear Plant Cyber Rule and the associated Regulatory (Reg) Guide which should be in place by early 2009. NRC and FERC discussed the need for addressing cyber security for continuity of nuclear power – and which agency may eventually be responsible. Until then, it is possible, there may be two sets of criteria- the NERC CIPS and the NRC Reg Guide. Joe Weiss