Because Excercise is Good for US, GridEx II is Coming

In case you've been wondering what kind of shape our North American grid incident response and information sharing system is in, now's your chance to find out.  You can click HERE for more details on what's coming up and register to participate if you're an asset owner one of the other types of orgs that have an official role to play.

• When: 13-14 November
• Where: North America
• Dress: Business Casual

While you're here, here are a few other items of possible interest:

• You can read a decent GridEx II intro HERE, from the NYTimes
• Findings and recommendations from the first GridEx begin on page 10 of the After Action Report
• Click HERE for news on a recent disruptive control system cyber attack on a tunnel traffic system in Israel

Poster image courtesy of Crossfit.com

Conference Alert: FIRST Energy Symposium - Energy Sector Incident Response

Sorry for the late announcement, but in the spirit of better late than never ...

In cooperation with ISC2, ICS-ISAC and EnergySec, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) brings you its first energy sector focused event.

As the FIRST folks put it:

This conference will bring together computer security incident response and security team professionals from all over the world and provide a forum for experts to promote, share, and discuss issues relating to developments in the field of Incident Response relating to the Energy Sector.

When: 28 + 29 October, 2013

Where: Lansdowne resort, Leesburg, VA (Not be be confused with Lansdowne Street in Boston)

To register: Click HERE (Save $100 using this code: Energy13)

BONUS: the agenda shows presentations by Jack Whitsitt and Chris Blask. If you don't know them, they are two of the more brilliant and idiosyncratic personalities in the business.  Worth the price of admission alone, IMHO.

NERC set to Excercise Grid Cyber Security

We all know exercise is good for us, but not all of us regularly act on that knowledge. Well, NERC has seen our flab and is recommending we hit the gym.

NERC is sponsoring GridEx 2011, a cybersecurity exercise dedicated to incident response in the electricity sector in North America. The event will be held mid November 2011, and hundreds of utility companies are participating in various capacities.

You can see the press release HERE and if you work for a North American utility that's not involved yet, you can write NERC's Brian Harrell and he'll get you up to speed fast.

But remember this before you go getting all giddy: no pain - no gain.

Photo credit: Lululemon Athletic on Flickr.com