Conference Alert: SCADA and Control Systems Security Summit

Just the facts, M'am:

• What: a gathering of like minded individuals intent on learning more about threats posed by systems not well known or understood by IT and Internet security crowd. Similar to mainframes in that they were originally conceived to run in an utterly disconnected world, early SCADA implementations (many still performing critical roles today) were designed with little thought to access control and authentication. Yet SCADA and other types of electronic control systems are as much a part of the emerging Smart Grid as will be the latest hardware and software offerings from CISCO, GE and SilverSpring. Because they have remained relatively obscure outside the operational utilities domain, developing strategies to secure them is now the order of the day as development of the Smart Grid leaps ahead.
• When: 7-9 December 2009
• Who: DHS, DOE, NERC and NIST will be there, joined by others from government and industry
• Where: Washington DC (venue to be named)
• How: For more info and to register, click here

Preparatory Resources

• The Open SCADA Security Project
• The Center for SCADA Security - Sandia National Labs
• Wikipedia's SCADA entry
• Blackhat Powerpoint: SCADA Security and Terrorism (PDF)

Photo courtesy of: Ian David Blum on Flickr