Derek is delighted to have a special guest calling in from Brussels today! 

Olivier De Visscher is the current Head of Railway Industrial Cybersecurity at the Expleo Group. He joins Derek to shed light on the importance of cybersecurity for the railway industry and discuss its implications for the future.

With a total of 25 years of experience, Olivier has dedicated ten of those years to the field of Industrial Cybersecurity. He shares his expertise and promotes collaboration with the cybersecurity domain of the European Transportation sector. He remains closely connected to the railway community, including RU, IM, and the Industry, as it provides him with a valuable opportunity to work across different areas. Olivier continues to support various European initiatives in the field of railway cybersecurity.

As we kick off our focus on transportation this month, starting with a series of events, seminars, and podcast episodes on May 17th, we could not be more excited to have Olivier joining us. With over 25 years of experience in IT and technology, Olivier brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in railway systems and other industrial applications. Stay tuned to learn more about Olivier and his insights on railway cybersecurity!

Show highlights:

• Olivier discusses his background in cybersecurity.
• What led Olivier to specialize in rail security?
• Olivier dives into the need for a new cybersecurity standard for rail.
• Why is cyber security so important in the transport sector?
• The importance of a cybersecurity approach in the safety case.
• Why you cannot protect against everything, especially when the threats are high-level.
• What is the tech refresh rate? 
• Is ancient technology still in play?
• What is going uniquely well in the rail industry?

Links and resources:

(CS)²AI 

Derek Harp on LinkedIn

Expleo Group

Olivier De Visscher on LinkedIn

We have a special treat for you today! Our friend and colleague, Brent Huston, joins Derek for an online CS2AI session to explore the fascinating modern ICS success story of robots, rails, bytes, and risk. 

Brent Huston is a cybersecurity expert who has been a business owner in this space for over three decades. He has a deep technical background but can explain complex concepts in a way that is easily understandable by everyone. 

In the 30 years he has been in the technology business, Brent has worked on various projects involving automated warehousing, inventory control systems, and point-of-sale systems. He also has expertise in cybersecurity and industrial automation. 

With his years of experience and expertise in the field, Brent will take us on a journey through the evolution of ICS security and share some valuable insights on achieving success in this constantly evolving landscape. Stay tuned for more!

Show highlights:

• Why warehousing is becoming a hot area for disruption.
• How robots move at high speeds and are user-programmable.
• Were there any considerations given to EMF attacks or sonic attacks?
• Brent dives into staffing with a team used to OT protocols.
• Using NLP to parse documentation and generate inventory reports and configuration maps.
• Creating an initial attack surface map.
• Using machine learning to analyze the network data to build a network map.
• Brent talks about moving the same techniques from automated warehousing into production environments.
• When they first got the system, everyone on the team expected the robots to be smarter than they are.
• How much automation is available today?
• Were there any considerations given to EMF attacks or sonic attacks?
• Brent shares his prediction for the future of cybersecurity.

Links and resources:

(CS)²AI 

Derek Harp on LinkedIn

Brent Huston on LinkedIn

Derek is delighted to have Megan Samford joining him today!

Megan is an executive experienced in Product Security programs, ICS/OT, PSIRTs, Threat Intel, and Critical Infrastructure Protection. She is currently the VP and Chief Product Security Officer of Energy Management at Schneider Electric.

Megan is a well-rounded and fascinating person! In addition to being a cyber-emergency manager, she is a critical infrastructure protection hero, the founder of many things, a mother, a rock hunter, and a genealogy enthusiast! She loves shopping, interior design, and cars-specifically 300zx!

In today’s episode, Megan tells her story, discusses her career trajectory, and shares her experience, insight, advice, and free resources for anyone considering a career in cybersecurity.

Show highlights:

• How Megan's mother helped Megan grow into her full potential.
• Megan talks about being part of the first graduating class of the world's first accredited degree program in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at Virginia University.
• How Megan gained a core foundation for critical infrastructure while doing an internship at the governor’s office in 2007.
• Megan discusses her first encounter with policy work and explains how much she loved it.
• Megan talks about being promoted to leading critical infrastructure for the Commonwealth of Virginia when she was only twenty-six.
• What Megan did that allowed her to get promoted to lead critical infrastructure for the Commonwealth of Virginia at only twenty-six years of age.
• Why do people like working with Megan professionally?
• How Megan got to work at GE, and how she ended up working at Schneider Electric.
• Megan dives into the work she does with ICS4ICS.
• Megan shares free resources via ICS4ICS for FEMA online incident command system training.

Links and resources:

(CS)²AI 

Derek Harp on LinkedIn

Schneider Electric

Megan Samford on LinkedIn

ICS4ICS training

Derek is delighted to have Daniel Ricci joining him on today’s podcast! 

Dan wears many different hats. He is currently the Senior Information Security Officer and Senior System Security Engineer at Frequentis Defense. He is also the founder of the ICS Advisory Project, which focuses on providing small and medium size ICS asset owners with a free data visualization capability to track applicable vulnerabilities and secure Critical Infrastructure. Dan retired from the U.S. Navy after serving 21 years in the Information Warfare community. During his career, he supported and enabled full-spectrum Cyberspace operations, Naval Air, Sea, and Special Warfare operations. 

Dan comes from a small town in the south suburbs of Chicago. In addition to being an engineer, he is also the founder of many things, a military veteran, musician, scuba diver, and data hound. He joins Derek today to discuss his background and career journey, share his insights and experience, and offer nuggets of advice for anyone considering a Naval cybersecurity career.

Show highlights:

• Why Dan joined the Navy, and what he learned there.
• Dan got introduced to security while in the Navy. He discusses the different aspects he focused on during his tours and the latter part of his Naval career.
• Dan dives into the cybersecurity training opportunities available in the Navy.
• Dan talks about his transition out of the Navy.
• What Dan is working on in his current role.
• Dan discusses the ICS Advisory Project he started.
• Dan shares his vision and concerns for the future of his ICS Advisory Project.
• Dan shares his vision for the future in general.

This special edition of the CS2AI podcast features the highlights of a recent interview with Derek, broadcast on the ABB Energy Pod podcast. 

In this episode, Patrik Boo, the Portfolio Manager for Cybersecurity Services at ABB Process Automation, interviews Derek Harp, the Founder and Chairman of CS2AI, about his upcoming keynote presentation that will open the OT Cybersecurity Leaders Virtual Summit on ransomware, which will take place on April 19th, 2023.  

Stay tuned to hear what Derek will cover in his keynote presentation at the OT Cybersecurity Leaders Virtual Summit. 

The summit is hosted by ABB in collaboration with other sponsors.

Show highlights:

• Derek discusses his main takeaways from the 2022 report.
• Who are the greatest threat actors?
• Derek dives into the need for OT cyber-informed training within the operating environment.
• How ransomware is on the rise in all the different sectors.
• The link between various groups of cyber criminals and the sharp increase in ransomware.
• Who is at risk?
• Other topics that will also be covered at the summit.

Links and resources:

(CS)²AI 

Derek Harp on LinkedIn

Today, Chris Blask, the Vice President of Strategy at Cybeats, and Patrick Miller, the CEO at Ampere, join Derek in an online seminar stimulated by a blog article Patrick wrote just after the last S4 conference.

Chris and Patrick are both (CS)²AI fellows who have attended many S4 events. In today’s online session, they review the latest S4 conference. They dive into various topics important for the industrial security and OT security communities, answer questions from listeners, and discuss the future of the cybersecurity industry.

S4 is one of the longest-standing annual cybersecurity conferences focused on control systems, OT, and ICS. Dale Petersen is the founder, creator, and MC of the S4 conferences.

Show highlights:

• Chris shares a main takeaway from this year’s S4 event.
• How technology is changing.
• Why more people are needed to make cybersecurity work going forward.
• Question: Are discussions of wireless security growing or declining at the conference? Is there a session (or sessions) dedicated to wireless yet?
• Question: Within all OT and IT cybersecurity professionals, what would be the ratio of OT cybersecurity real professionals? 
• Why it is normal and expected not to know the answer to some things, and how to find the answer if there is something you don’t know.
• Question: Tribal knowledge is a real threat to OT/ICS security. The aging workforce in OT engineering is part of this problem. What is the best way for organizations to address this challenge?
• Chris and Patrick share their thoughts on executives taking the risk of solving ICS/OT security issues.
• Question: What are your thoughts on Ford applying for a patent on a car that can repossess itself?
• Chris and Patrick discuss metrics, risk management, and cyber insurance.
• Patrick and Chris dive into diversity, equity, and inclusion in the OT space.
• Question: When will we get past the notion that ICS pen-testing has to be a separate category?
• Question: Looking forward, what would you foresee as the big themes of S4/24?

Today, Derek interviews Jonathan Tubb, the Director of Industrial Cybersecurity at Siemens Energy in Ohio. 

Jonathan is an experienced Senior Lead with a demonstrated history of working in the power generation industry. He is skilled in Power Plants, Electric Power, Power Systems, Integration, and Research. He has strong project management skills and a Computer Science and Engineering degree from The Ohio State University.

Jonathan is a well-rounded and interesting individual! He is also a great contributor to the cybersecurity community and a true blue engineer, software engineer, tinkerer, bird and animal lover, Ohio State Buckeye, and art enthusiast. He joins Derek to discuss his background, education, and career trajectory, along with nuggets of advice for anyone considering a career in the cybersecurity space.

Show highlights:

• Growing up, Jonathan spent much of his time focusing on science and technology.
• How volunteering at the Museum of Science and Industry fed Jonathan’s curiosity and impacted his approach to technology.
• How cybersecurity informed where Jonathan began his career.
• Jonathan discusses his internship with American Electric Power.
• What are the benefits of doing an internship?
• Why must we utilize other people’s knowledge to help solve problems?
• Jonathan discusses his transition to Siemens Energy.
• Jonathan gets into what he has focused on for the last few years at Siemens Energy.
• What makes a good cybersecurity practitioner?
• Jonathan dives into the industrial cybersecurity apprenticeship concept Siemens Energy has put together but not yet implemented.

Today, Chris Sistrunk joins Derek Harp on the podcast. Chris is currently the Technical Manager at Mandiant, which is now part of Google Cloud.

Chris is a Technical Manager in Mandiant's ICS/OT Consulting practice, focusing on cyber security for industrial control systems (ICS) and critical infrastructure. He focuses on helping secure ICS and critical infrastructure around the world.

Chris grew up in the hills and hollows of North Louisiana, surrounded by swamps, red clay, and pine trees. He is a relied-on expert in the cybersecurity space. He is also a husband and father, one of the co-founders of the BEER-ISAC, musician, dad joke-teller, bourbon aficionado, and an aspiring BBQ pit-master. 

In this episode, Chris shares his backstory. He also discusses his education and career path and offers helpful advice for anyone interested in working with control systems and control systems security.

Show highlights:

• Chris had an engineering mindset and was always curious about how things worked while growing up.
• How he got into working with SCADA systems early on in his career.
• How hurricanes taught Chris about instant response and disaster recovery, and prepared him for what he does today.
• Chris offers advice, encouragement, and assistance to anyone who wants to work with control systems and control systems security.
• What Chris learned while working for the power company. 
• The kind of thinking he employs when working with cybersecurity.
• How Chris shifted from being an engineer to working with cybersecurity for control systems.
• The various roles Chris has played and the steps he has taken along his career path.
• How Chris got to work at Mandiant.
• The importance of building trust, respect, and working together, to solve difficult problems.

Links and resources:

(CS)²AI 

Mandiant

Chris Sistrunk on LinkedIn

Chris Sistrunk on Twitter

Today, Derek Harp interviews Jose Seara, the Founder, and CEO of DeNexus.

Jose is an entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience building enterprises around critical infrastructure assets across different technologies and geographies. He turned a start-up concept into an international corporation with $100M in revenues. He is now building the global standard for Industrial Cyber Risk quantification at DeNexus and bridging the chasm between cyber threats and business impact.

Jose comes from Spain. He was born in Barcelona and grew up in Madrid. He is an intriguing person with a fascinating background. In addition to being an entrepreneur, he is also a husband, father, sailor, scuba diver, pilot, skier, builder, runner, and biker. He joins Derek today to discuss his background, professional journey, and the interesting work that gets done at DeNexus. He also shares his experience and offers nuggets of advice for budding entrepreneurs.

Show highlights:

• Jose discusses his career journey, which began with him studying Naval Engineering at a college in Madrid.
• Even though he is not very technologically savvy, Jose got exposed to technology through various work ventures.
• Jose explains what brought him into the technology and cybersecurity space.
• Jose explains how he shifted from working with traditional energy to becoming an entrepreneur working with wind and solar energies.
• Jose explains how risk-taking has always taken him out of his comfort zone.
• Learning lessons the hard way ensured Jose never forgot what he had learned.
• How Jose inadvertently planted the seeds for DeNexus before starting it.
• Jose reflects on his own entrepreneurial journey and offers advice for entrepreneurs new to the cybersecurity segment and entrepreneurs and CEOs selling cybersecurity to the OT space. 
• The various steps Jose took before launching DeNexus.
• What are they doing at DeNexus?
• The role the insurance industry plays in the control systems space.
• What excites Jose about the future?

Links and resources:

(CS)²AI 

Jose Seara on LinkedIn

DeNexus

On the 7th of December 2022, (CS)²AI hosted a symposium where more questions got asked than could get answered within the allotted time. Tilo Kaschubek was one of the speakers at the event. He joins Derek today on the podcast to respond to some of the unanswered questions.

Tilo is currently the Director of Cloud Ecosystem and Regional Alliances in EMEA for AVEVA. He was previously with OSIsoft before the merger. (AVEVA is now a subsidiary of a large recognized equipment manufacturer.)

In this episode, Tilo discusses his role in the recent AVEVA transaction, describes the (CS)²AI symposium in detail, and dives into some of the questions he did not get to answer at the event. 

Show highlights:

• Tilo discusses the changes that recently occurred with AVEVA.
• Tilo summarises his presentation at the (CS)²AI symposium.
• Question: How do you see IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) playing a role via cloud models for predictive analytics to enhance decision-making for owner-operators?
• Question: On a personal level, big data analytics has raised huge privacy and legal issues. How can these issues not be exacerbated in a commercial market of trading companies’ data into sellable products?
• Tilo discusses the best approach to data vulnerabilities.
• Question: Help me visualize a 100% on-prem PI deployment with all of its virtual machines versus a 100% on-cloud PI deployment. In terms of hybrid, what does that mean, in the sense that I only have on-prem systems talking to the PI on-premises virtual machines, and what exactly is running in the cloud? Alternatively, is the cloud-based solution offered as SaaS, or would the asset owner deploy their favorite cloud?
• Question: Regarding the AVEVA data, is that similar to the AWS Marketplace? For instance, if an organization built a digital twin of a transformer system from Utility Hacks, is the data hub created going to make it easy for Utility Hacks to publish the model so others can use or vie? If not, is there an AVEVA marketplace where organizations can build or share models?
• Question: As an oil and gas control system engineer and user who has applied software for many years, I’d like to know if you have already adopted this new solution and used it for any oil and gas company.
• Tilo explains the PI system philosophy.
• What has AVEVA done to overcome the existing legal constraints and make it easier to share operational data?
• Question: What do ISACs (Information Sharing and Analysis Centers) do?
• What are the benefits of the subscription model?
• What is available for auditing, testing, and verifying technologies like unidirectional gateways and data diodes?