From: The Wall Street Journal/CIO Journal
Michael Hickins
Good morning. Electric utilities and other U.S. companies considered part of the country’s critical infrastructure are finally waking up to the threat of cyberterrorism. A group of 11 electric, gas, energy and chemical companies is forming a coalition Wednesday, with the purpose of sharing information about emerging cyberthreats, best practices and employee training. The coalition will help utilities address “significant weaknesses” and “learn what we’ve missed before as an industry in our lack of success in securing the power grid,” Ed Skoudis, an instructor at cybersecurity research organization SANS Institute, told CIO Journal.
Also Wednesday the president will issue an executive order creating a voluntary program in which companies operating critical infrastructure would elect to meet cybersecurity best practices and standards crafted, in part, by the government. The administration began issuing a drumbeat of warnings about cyberterrorism late last summer. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in August warned that ”foreign cyber actors are probing America’s critical infrastructure networks” in order to access computer control systems that operate chemical, electricity and water plants as well as those that guide transportation systems. He added there are “specific instances where intruders have successfully gained access to these control systems.” The number of people who can deal with this type of cyberattack is “a really small number,” Chris Bronk, fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, told CIO Journal.
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