Curtis Marquardt Jr.: Can you tell our readers more about your background and what you do for SERC Reliability Corporation.? Travis Moran: I began my career in law enforcement, first as an analyst with Interpol. After several years, I joined the U.S. State Department as a special agent, where I served for six-and-a-half years. I then spent 17 years at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives dealing with violent crime, terrorism, bombs and murders. Following my retirement in 2013, I joined Dominion Energy’s corporate security department. This tenure coincided with the…

The most commonly used decision-making process is conjecture-based; we use it countless times daily. We go through life making decisions based on assumptions, speculation and whimsy, with little thought to impact or outcomes. However, when it comes to security, especially substation security, our decisions have consequences. For these decisions, we need a better decision-making method. We need a reliable technique that can produce sound decisions and stand up to intense scrutiny. General Colin Powell once said: “You can’t make good decisions unless you have good information and can separat…

There’s a great quote by Confucius that says: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” And it’s truly applicable for security professionals because no matter how much one plans, strategizes and fully commits to preventing an incident, along comes something that challenges those efforts in ways that can help an organization grow, evolve and achieve an even better security posture. On Dec. 3, 2022, Duke Energy experienced a “something” in the form of an unprecedented and sophisticated attack on a low-level substation that knocked out power to more tha…

If you search for “Andrew Bochman” on Amazon’s website, the first listing to appear is a book he co-authored about countering cyber sabotage. If you search his name on YouTube, you’ll find videos of him presenting on topics including managing risk and operational technology cybersecurity. Bochman dedicated much of his career to helping with the security and resiliency of utilities. Interview with Andy Bochman But as the years passed, he watched—along with the rest of us—climate event after climate event continuou…

Interview with Dan Stemp and Alex Wakeland As storm restoration work becomes more frequent, so do the challenges of verifying that the workers that flock to the disaster areas are qualified to do the work as well as meet background checks and security verifications they need. We talked with Dan Stemp, the chief customer officer at JNCTN, a New Zealand-based company that is hoping to bring a solution to the U.S. market that will not only empower utilities to verify workers but also give the workers ownership of that …

For many utilities, physical security begins at the door or the parking lot. However, robust facility protection starts at the perimeter. But we often abandon this defense resource to aesthetics, budget restraints, or misplaced values. This makes a secure perimeter the least considered and most often overlooked element of facility security. However, resilient perimeter protection should be your first line of defense, and establishing and maintaining rigid perimeter security should not be discounted or ignored. A robust perimeter security system should be an element of a comprehensive ass…

In November 2023, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) and its Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) conducted the seventh biennial GridEx. “GridEx is one of the largest and most comprehensive security drawings that are done in any critical infrastructure sector,” said Manny Cancel, senior vice president and CEO of E-ISAC. “It has been going on for more than 14 years, and the purpose of the drill is to really exercise and stress our incident response plans in the face of serious cyber and physical security scenarios.” Interview with Gary Bower GARY BOWER: Absolutely. I’m the Branch Chief for the infrastructure Security Exercise Branch—which is part of the Infrastructure Security Division within CISA. I’ve been in emergency management for about 20 years, the last ten of which I have focused on exercises with the critical infrastructure…

We sat down with Chee-Wooi Ten, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Technological University. He spends his time researching actuarial science and risk profiling for the power infrastructure industry, linking cyber events with operational risk mitigation. During our discussion, Ten shared his insights about the risks of a cascading cyberattack and the need to train the younger generation on the overlapping knowledge of cybersecurity and power grid operation. Interview with Chee-Wooi Ten …

With more than 400 attendees attending the event in Phoenix on June 24-25, 2024, the Security LeadHER conference, presented by SIA and ASIS International, is a growing event that reveals a trend toward increased leadership diversity in the security industry.  “Of all the security conferences I’ve attended in the last couple of years, this one certainly had an energy like no other,” said Curtis Marquardt, Jr., Editor-in-Chief of Utility Security magazine. “The positivity and excitement was consistent throughout both days and it’s outstanding to see the industry embrace diversity in its le…

As the world and society become increasingly aggressive and complex, it’s important to know how to spot and respond to dangers in public spaces and act in ways that reduce the likelihood of violence As we see more criminal and aggressive incidents committed against utility workers, it’s important that your frontline workers be equipped with training that helps them act in ways that reduces their risk. Personal attacks on utility employees often happen unexpectedly and are preceded by a variety of customer threats—whether verbal, physical, using animals to intimidate, displaying weapons an…

With the rapid advancement of AI and other technologies, utility customers are going to face increasing and more deceptive scam efforts than ever before. This, of course, means that utility organizations will have an increasingly difficult task of educating and informing customers about utility-related scams they may encounter.  Utility Security magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Curtis Marquardt Jr., sat down with Monica Martinez, the executive director for Utilities United Against Scams (UUAS). UUAS is a consortium of more than 150 U.S. and Canadian electric, water and natural gas utilities a…

  With attacks on utilities growing every year, it is more important that ever to have a sound bomb threat response program in place. A key element to that program is to work together with state and local law enforcement to establish lines of communication about potential threats as well as establishing an effective response plan. Utility Security magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Curtis Marquardt Jr., had a chance to sit down with the Office of Bomb Prevention’s Operation’s Chief, Charles Leas, to talk about how utilities can create or improve their bomb threat program.  Curtis Marqua…

“Protecting Utilities” Luncheon at ISC West April 2024 Utility Security Sponsored Lunch On April 11, 2024, Security Industry Association (SIA)’s Utilities Advisory Board hosted the “Protecting Utilities” luncheon at ISC West. During this free event, SIA brought together experts, solution providers and thought leaders who are working on the front lines of critical infrastructure protection to explore the vital role of the security industry in helping to keep the lights on. Utility Security was there to support this cause with our new pu…

ISC West – International Security Conference and Exposition Coverage 2024 April 9-12, 2024 – Las Vegas, Nevada International Security Conference & Exposition (ISC) security events are the leading exhibitions for the security tradeshow industry. ISC Security Events are the only holistic security tradeshows strategically designed to provide products, technology, education & networking covering physical, IT and IoT security. ISC runs various regional events across North, and South America, which range in a variety of different f…