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5 Questions with a Utility Security Professional Archive



Five Questions with ALCEA North America’s Managing Director Jerry Burns

Utility Security Magazine Asks 5 Vital Questions to an Industry Expert   ALCEA, the critical infrastructure-focused division of ASSA ABLOY, recently released a white paper on NERC CIP Standards and physical security solutions. We sat down with ALCEA North America’s Managing Director, Jerry Burhand, to discuss compliance strategies and physical security technologies. CURTIS MARQUARDT: So, what inspired ALCEA to develop a white paper that details the purpose and scope of NERC CIP Standards?  JERRY BURHANS: As the reference brand for Critical Infrastructure, ALCEA is always involved in the business of providing secure ways to ensure life goes on uninterrupted. We have years of trusted experience, knowledge and documented utility customer coll…
Vicky Turner

Five Questions with Utility Technology Association President Vicky Wilson Turner

Ahead of Utility Security magazine attending the Utility Technology Association’s (UTA) annual conference earlier this year in October, we had a chance to speak with the organization’s president to learn more about the UTA, their annual event and what cybersecurity concerns are shaping their members’ discussions and efforts.   Can you tell our readers about the UTA and what the organization is doing to help propel security in the utility segment?  The UTA was originally formed back in 1981. At its core, it is a technology support group that focuses on new and innovative ideas to ensure strength and growth in areas like network administration, security, disaster recovery, information compliance, network and internet security, customer…

5 Questions with Utility Security Expert & Author Ross Johnson

1. When it comes to the terrorist threat, what are the greatest misconceptions about how they think and operate? There has been a lot of evolution in terrorist threats in the past fifty years. Earlier hierarchical terrorist organizations have given way to loose affiliations bound together by ideology and the internet. Today, they are not trying to liberate anyone, and they are not trying to impose a religion. Instead, driving communities apart has become the aim in this new age of terrorism. In the January 2016 edition of The New Yorker Lawrence M. Krause wrote an article titled Thinking Rationally about Terror where he said something that stopped me in my tracks: “…terrorism is designed (to) drive a wedge between segments of a community w…
Ten article

5 QUESTIONS WITH ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING RESEARCHER AND EDUCATOR CHEE-WOOI TEN

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. Q1: Why should our readers be looking seriously at the risks of cascading outages caused by cyberattacks on interconnected control areas in power systems? TEN: Imagine our electricity system as a giant web where everything is connected. If a cyberattack hits…

5 Questions with Bomb Threat Expert Sean Haglund

We sat down with Sean Haglund, who serves as the Associate Director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Office for Bombing Prevention (CISA OBP) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CISA OBP leads DHS’ efforts to enhance national security by building public and private capabilities to deter, prevent and respond to bombing incidents. During our discussion, he shared some valuable insights and advice on how utilities can be better prepared for bomb threats. Q1: Why should utilities really be thinking more about bomb threats? HAGLUND: We are currently facing a pretty significant elevated bomb threat level right now. According to the 2022 Explosives Incident Report, a joint product between CISA and the U.S. Bomb…