Where the Private Sector Protects the Nation

Deck: 

Cross-Sector Information Sharing is Key

Fortnightly Magazine - May 2017
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For the past nine years, I have been focused on how electric utilities, other critical infrastructure asset owners, and the supply community protect against the ever-evolving, rapidly changing cybersecurity threat. Most of that time has been spent specifically on the electric sector because of the recognition by federal officials, members of Congress, and others that electricity is the most critical of the infrastructures.

The complexity of the policy issues governing cybersecurity never ceases to amaze me, largely due to the fact that this challenge is unlike any that we have faced. At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Cybersecurity Summit last year, former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker eloquently and succinctly captured the uniqueness of cybersecurity threats: cyber is the only domain in which we ask the private sector to be responsible for national security.

Now, the majority of those that work in the electric industry know full well the importance of grid resilience to the economic security, the safety and the well-being of our populace. It is this aspect of homeland security that requires us to get the answers to the public policy questions we are regularly being asked – because when it comes down to it, our country’s security is at stake. To that end, there are a few things we need to enhance to improve grid resilience.

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