CAREER OUTLOOK
SAFEGUARDING POWER PLANTS AND UTILITIES
STUXNET-like worm is aimed at them? In 2011, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engi-
I
neers).org reported in the Industrial Control Systems Emergency Response Team Report on Critical Infrastructure those cyber- attacks incidents had grown from nine in 2009 to 198 last year. In descending order of the number of incidents, the attacks were on water, cross sector, energy and government and chemical, nuclear and transportation facilities. The incidents, the study said, raised questions as individual hackers, criminal gangs and state-sponsored disrupters become more sophisticated about the vulnerability of “internet facing system,” and those where moni- tors and controls were centralized. On Oct. 12, 2012, CIA Director Leon Panetta said a cyber-
attack attack in August destroyed more than 30,000 computers in Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company. Panetta then spoke of a cyber Pearl Harbor striking the United States that could kill citizens and potentially destroy part of the power grid, financial networks and transport system.
“The most destructive scenarios involve cyber actors 70 USBE&IT I WINTER 2012
f the west can attack—although they deny it—Iran’s centri- fuges, how vulnerable are our facilities? That is the crux of today’s concerns. Are America’s energy providers ready if a
launching several attacks on our critical infrastructure at one time, in combination with a physical attack on our country,” Panetta said.
Infrastructure is under constant threat. Last June, on just
one day, Infosecurity magazine reported the following headlines on domestic and foreign threats: “Los Alamos National Lab subjected to ‘maelstrom’ of simulated cyber attacks;” Health and safety inspector loses details of Hartlepool nuclear power plant;” “U.S. expels Venezuelan diplomat over cyber plot against nu- clear plants;” “Nuclear regulator slow in correcting information security vulnerabilities;” and “Major cyber attack on Mitsubishi involving nuclear power plant data.”
So, who you gonna call when there is so much to worry about? One person is Liberian-American William McBorrough. He is a cyber solutions lead principal for Pragmatics, a Reston, Va., IT services provider. McBorrough’s focal points include securing client’s mission critical systems, working internally to develop PRiSM, a company-owned software that seeks to improve continuous monitoring and situational awareness of IT infrastructure and cybersecurity compliance by integrating data from multiple monitoring tools into a holistic vulnerability assessment.
www.blackengineer.com
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