Featured Sessions Include Keynotes Delivered by Renowned Control System Security Experts and First-Ever SCADA Vulnerability Disclosure Case Study and Panel
FALLS CHURCH, VA, April 24, 2006 – The Process Control Systems Forum (PCSF), established to improve efficiencies and accelerate the development of best practices crucial to securing control systems worldwide, today released the full conference agenda for its 2nd Annual 2006 Spring Meeting to be held in La Jolla, Ca. on June 6-7. This two-day event builds upon the past year’s efforts by the PCSF to raise awareness for control system security issues, and will feature several keynote sessions, workshops and panel discussions to engage attendees and accelerate the critical work that is being done currently to address these threats.
“Over the past few years, myriad organizations have been established and conferences have been planned that work toward improving control systems security,” said Michael Torppey, PCSF Technical Manager. “While these activities have done a good job of identifying the problems, action to make progress in this area has been slow. Our Spring Meeting is truly a one-of-a-kind event that will provide the venue for our participants to become engaged with others who face similar challenges while cross-connecting them with solution providers.
Together, these parties will actively collaborate to not only identify best practices in control systems security, but also collectively work towards providing the tools necessary to put these ideas into practice.”The theme for the PCSF Spring Meeting is “A Call to Action: Now is the Time to Achieve Results” and the meeting participants – international stakeholders from industry, academia, standards bodies, vendors and government – will utilize this inclusive venue to develop common architectures, protocols and best practices for locking down cyber security for control systems. Keynotes for the event will be delivered from renowned control systems security experts including Dr.
Paul Dorey, CISO of BP, p.l.c.; William Crowell, IT consultant and former Deputy Director for the NSA; and Margaret “Peg” Grayson, member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) which provides recommendations to the President on critical infrastructure security and other issues. These leading executives will share their perspectives on overcoming the challenges of embracing a pervasive security management approach, how to deal with the unique challenges to securing control systems, and what hurdles lie ahead.
The Spring Meeting also will feature several noteworthy panel discussions and workshops pertaining to control system security issues, including: First SCADA Disclosure: Case Study, Panel Session, and Workshops – This talk will provide detailed “behind the scenes” information such as response timelines, summary of vendor/CERT communications, and actions to measure the effectiveness of current response procedures and frame the debate within the control system security community. Four panels representing control system vendors, national coordination centers, security researchers, and asset owners will discuss and debate central questions regarding the disclosure and dissemination of information on control system vulnerabilities.
SCADA Cyber Self-Assessment (SCySAG) Workshop
– This PCSF Working Group assists with the development and adoption of the next generation of self-administered tools and methodologies for the assessment of the cyber security readiness of control systems. During this workshop, participants will present a compendium of existing SCADA self-assessment efforts/resources, continue to work on analysis of the unique characteristics of the control system environment versus the generic IT environment, and plan for a gap analysis publication to identify areas of cyber self-assessment requirements that are inadequately covered.
Control System Event Monitoring Workshop
– This Group is leveraging existing solutions and identifying ways to augment these solutions with control system detection sources and correlation intelligence. The results will be good practices, information sharing, product and service solutions, and case studies that will help asset owners detect cyber attacks on their critical infrastructures. This workshop will progress the Security Event Monitoring (SEM) Group’s two projects; collecting and correlating control system attack statistics and integrating control system application logs in SEM products. Real-world results will be demonstrated, and work to improve and broaden the solution will be debated.Over 250 attendees are slated to attend this year’s meeting, which will take place at The Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel.
The registration fee for this event is currently $395.00, increasing to $445.00 on April 29, 2006.
Attendees should register online now to receive the best rates: https://www.pcsforum.org/events/2006/spring/index.php
About the Process Control Systems Forum
In February 2005, The Process Control Systems Forum (PCSF) was established in response to the growing vulnerability of infrastructure asset control systems in an increasingly computerized, automated, and interdependent operating environment. Established with funding from the Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (DHS/HSARPA) and managed by a public/private collaborative Interim Governing Board (IGB), the PCSF charter is to improve efficiencies and accelerate the development of best practices that are crucial to securing critical infrastructures. The PCSF operates as an open, collaborative, voluntary forum to leverage and unify the experience, capabilities, and contributions of stakeholders through meetings, Interest Groups, and Working Groups.
The IGB provides guidance on strategy, management, legal matters, processes, and conflict resolution for the PCSF. Forum participants include international stakeholders from government, academia, industry users, owner/operators, and systems integrators and the vendor community. The PCSF is facilitated by Mitretek Systems.
For more information, please visit www.pcsforum.org .