Today was Day One of the spring meeting of DHS’s Industrial Control System Joint Working Group [ICSJWG]. Here are some highlights and comments:

There were just over 200 people at the event, official number or registrants was 267. Just like PCSF before it, ICSJWG is often worth attending just for the opportunity to talk with so many active participants from government, vendors, asset owners, and others.

The keynote from Preston Werntz on the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center [NCCIC], pronounced n-kick, was full of government acronyms and internal government processes. Hard to pull out the applicability and benefits to industry.

The rest of the morning was filled with introductions and reports from six subgroups: Vendor, Workforce Development, Information Sharing, International, R&D and ICS Roadmap. One year into ICSJWG these subgroups are still in the organizational, charter, member recruitment phase. This is not unusual, but it does demonstrate the pain that closing PCSF caused. For example the PCSF Vendor Working Group had a vuln disclosure process 98% done, but this is still mothballed awaiting organization of ICSJWG subgroups.

With little to show from the subgroups, the morning agenda seemed quite flat to me. It may have been necessary because DHS views the subgroup deliverables as the key to ICSJWG, rather than the semi-annual meetings. However, it took a lot of the potential energy out of the event and had the attendees I talked to shaking their heads.

I was actively listening to the subgroups for something that I was enthusiastic about participating in. After all, there are so many opportunities to contribute, e.g. ISA99, NERC CIP, NIST Smart Grid, Pilot Projects, Research Projects, Vendor User Groups, … So the people in the community decide what is of value.

Looking forward to Day 2 Agenda which looks a lot stronger.