Can Local InfraGard Chapters Help SCADA Security?
I was hesitant to blog this because I’m a supporter of InfraGard and I’m involved at the national level but …
I attended the Miami Chapter meeting and the leadership team announced plans to have a Sector Chief and Deputy Sector Chief for each of the 13 infrastructure sectors identified by DHS. So there would be an Sector Chief for Energy, another for Transportation, another for Water, etc. I hear this is happening in many chapters.
The idea is these Sector Chiefs would lead the efforts to educate the sector on security, assist with incident response, develop best practices and more. The problem is there is little expertise on the technologies or businesses in many of these sectors resident in InfraGard. The best availability expertise resides in the companies the chapter wants to assist. For example, why would FPL, the dominant electric player in Florida, look to the InfraGard when they are so far ahead of InfraGard.
The DCS and SCADA Security area is one of the worst in terms of resident expertise. I don’t believe there was anyone else at the meeting who had seen or touched a control network. South Florida is not a small market. We have Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach and all the suburbs. There certainly is critical mass for a Health Care Sector Chief with all the hospitals and ER services down here, but energy? chemicals? Probably not. My guess is this is true for most chapters with a few exceptions.
The Sector Chief concept gets more interesting as the individual chapters report up and coordinate to regional centers. Most of the industries understand there is a need to share information and best practices, and this is a potential vehicle. The Sector Chief concept may have a better chance of succeeding as a virtual organization rather than a local group. It will be interesting how this ties in or competes with the ISAC’s and other industry groups (API, CIDX, etc.)
Author: Dale Peterson
Posted: April 14th, 2005 under InfraGard.
Comments: 1
Comments
Comment from K. Sean Patrick
Time: May 14, 2005, 2:46 am
Being on the board of the New Mexico InfraGard Members Alliance, I have a couple of comments.
I agree with your assessment of the lack of resident expertise in all the various sectors. However, I believe that it should be the goal of the chapter to “recruit” any experts that might exist within the geographic confines of the chapter. I think that at a minimum the sector chiefs could update the membership with news from a given sector, which may not require expertise. Also the sector chiefs serve as a point of contact for existing or new members who wish to gain more information on a certtain sector. In this capacity they may not be giving expert advise, but putting those people in touch with the known experts. Sometimes just facilitating communicaitons in a given sector serves a great purpose. And I think that if a national “virtual” sector chief type concept were to be implemented, then the local sector chiefs could be the point of contact at the grass roots level to help members gain access to this “virtual” group.
In terms of your last comment about other organizations, such as ISACA, etc., it is my opinion that the goal is not to compete with these organization, but align with these organizations such that we can create leverage in attaining our common goals and missions. One good example of this leveraging effect is we have had and are actively planning various seminars and talks that we could not otherwise host without the shared financial responsibility. In addition it allows us to leverage on our combined membership base to increase the attendance at such functions. Therefore, I think this kind of partnership would be most benefitial for all involved.
Thanks!
Write a comment