GridSecCon Gets Stormy

Since its inception in 2011, this conference’s DNA has been cybersecurity for electric grids, and in particular, the North American grid. No wonder, as host NERC oversees and enforces the critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards process, which are almost entirely focused on cyber risks. All kinds of cyber folks attend including those from product companies, services companies, utility pros who run and defend the grid, and regulators who try and keep watch over all of it.

This time my talk was about the risk of suppliers putting generative AIs, prone to hallucinations and emergent behaviors in control centers, and I also extended the topic to address ultra-realistic AI-boosted disinformation including deepfakes that could spoof operators into taking harmful actions.

But that was just background. This post is about the Wednesday morning keynote delivered by DHS Chief Meteorologist, Sunny Wescott. She’d previously briefed the NERC board back in August, and they smartly brought her back to get her message to the 700 attendees in the big room. For 60 straight minutes, with hardly a pause for breath, Sunny revealed in graphic detail the physical risks that are barreling at the grid right now and which are going to get more intense and more frequent with every passing year. Already well versed in these matters, in part thanks to paying close attention to her the last several years, I sat near the front and turned my gaze back on the audience.

What I witnessed was the most attentive group of techies, business and government folks I’d ever seen. It wouldn’t be too strong to say they were riveted. Sunny’s a dynamic speaker to be sure, and I’ve seen others with similar skill. But it was what she was conveying that caused everyone in the room to lock on. I can only imagine what was going on in the minds of people who, while aware the world was changing, hadn’t had or hadn’t taken the time to understand how much and how soon and what that would mean for them, their families, their companies, their futures ... their children’s futures.

?Not to mention the grid and the very many interdependencies it shares with other infrastructure and supply chain elements, all of which are increasingly coming under assault from floods, fires, freezes, heat waves and storm systems that grow from nearly nothing to full-on nightmares in the comparative blink of an eye.

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Shout out to Alex Assante who, not for the first time, is to present for an end-of-conference award named after his wonderful dad. But as is apt in this case, the apple has not fallen far from the tree. And it’s clear that the still-young son is going to make a name for himself as he too works to more fully secure some of the most important systems in the land.