Government leaders, energy researchers, and cybersecurity experts from the U.S., Europe, and Asia are coming together for a three-day conference that aims to make critical infrastructure more secure. The conference, Energy Grid Cybersecurity: Threats & Solutions, is co-sponsored by the Siebel Energy Institute and the Siebel Scholars Foundation, and will be held in Washington, D.C., from Friday, March 3 through Sunday, March 5, 2017.
The conference program will focus on the frequency, nature, sources, and potential impact of cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, with a concentration on the power grid.
The Honorable Dr. Robert M. Gates, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, will engage in a fireside chat with Thomas M. Siebel, Chairman of the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation at the conference opening event on March 3 at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Ted Koppel, acclaimed journalist and author of Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, will moderate the conference proceedings on March 4 at the National Academy of Sciences building. On March 5, attendees will transform discussion into action as they work together to develop recommendations for making the grid more secure.
Together with conference attendees, eminent federal security experts and security industry specialists will discuss and debate the extent of the grid cybersecurity problem and how to best secure the power grid. Speakers include: Richard Clarke, Cybersecurity Expert and Former Counterterrorism Czar; General Michael V. Hayden, Former Director of the CIA and the NSA; Dr. Douglas Maughan, Division Director, Cybersecurity Division, DHS/S&T/HSARPA; Jeremiah Grossman, Professional Hacker and Chief of Security Strategy, SentinelOne; Robert M. Lee, CEO and Founder, Dragos, Inc.; Kevin Mandia, CEO, FireEye; and Steve Orrin, Federal Chief Technologist, Intel Corp.
Attendees will include recipients of the Siebel Scholars awards, which are granted annually to the leading graduate students at some of the world’s top universities. This formidable group of executives, entrepreneurs, researchers, and philanthropists directly influences the technologies, policies, and economic and social decisions that shape the future.
The Siebel Scholars will be joined by researchers from the Siebel Energy Institute, a global consortium for innovative and collaborative energy research dedicated to advancing the science of smart energy.
“Because the electric grid is key to, and interconnected deeply with every major infrastructure, a successful attack on the power grid could trigger cascading events in our national security, finance, and public health infrastructures. Advances in smart grid technologies have provided new services but have also created new vulnerabilities. In this conference, we will have a global dialogue between researchers, security experts from industry and the government, and stake holders, about solutions for enhancing the resilience of our new energy infrastructures,†said S. Shankar Sastry, Siebel Energy Institute Director and Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
