99: Exploring the Multifaceted World of Gary Kessler: From Cybersecurity Expert to Master Scuba Diver Trainer

From Conference to Change: Asset Owners on What They Actually Did After Level Zero Asset owners from UPS, Southern California Edison and ExxonMobil get specific about what changed after Level Zero: a talk that became a deployed AI harness, a team member who went on to NIMS certification after the tabletop, and ideas borrowed across sectors. Christian Harter, Blake Gilson, and Brian Foster debate who should attend (almost everyone), how to prepare (don't just show up), why the hallway track matters most, and why more asset owners should take the stage. They close on AI: powerful, but it needs an operator. Guests: Blake Gilson (IT Planning & Strategy Manager, ExxonMobil); Brian Foster (Grid Security – Enterprise Sr Advisor, Southern California Edison) Host/Moderator: Christian Harter (BISO OT & Director of OT Security and Engineering, UPS) Chapters: 00:41 Panel introductions 02:02 What stuck from Level Zero 04:48 Bringing a team (UPS brought 16) 09:12 What actually changed afterwards 14:49 Send a group or one person? Budgets and training 19:28 Who should attend 23:12 How to prepare 24:38 The hallway track 30:11 What to preserve and grow: asset owner stories 43:19 Where AI ends and humans begin 49:40 A new class of worker Recorded at the CS²AI Online Symposium, "Level Zero: Visions & Reflections." Join us at Level Zero 2027, April 23–30 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta: pre-conference training, the Conflag Zero™ tabletop exercise, and three days of practitioner-led sessions built so you can put what you learn to work the Monday you get back. Questions: [email protected] · Sponsorship: [email protected] Produced by CS²AI (Control System Cyber Security Association International).

Inside the Tabletop: What an Airport OT Incident Taught Us About Command, Cost, and Chaos The team behind and inside Level Zero 2026's tabletop exercise breaks down what happened when an airport OT incident played out in real time. Derrik Oates and panelists from UPS, the Department of War, and the finance table walk through the ICS4ICS incident command framework, what it's like to be a first-timer when the pressure hits, why "keep your receipts" is real advice, and how to make sure exercise lessons actually change an organization. They also explain why the 2027 exercise becomes a dedicated full day. Guests: Christian Harter (UPS); Donovan Tindill (DeNexus); Brad Willet (UPS); Daryl Haegley (United States Department of the Air Force) Host / moderator: Derrik Oates (UTSI) Chapters: 00:00 Panel introductions 04:50 Why run tabletop exercises at all 08:48 The finance table: 'keep your receipts' 13:02 ICS4ICS sections and logistics 14:43 Decisions under fire 18:59 One voice: incident communications 20:46 Using the ICS4ICS framework anywhere 23:04 First-timer experience 27:45 Understand the problem before you fix it 30:30 Lessons learned and changes for 2027 35:20 Making lessons stick: ownership and after-action 40:56 Why practice matters: downtime and safety Recorded at the CS²AI Online Symposium, "Level Zero: Visions & Reflections." Join us at Level Zero 2027, April 23–30 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta: pre-conference training, the Conflag Zero™ tabletop exercise, and three days of practitioner-led sessions built so you can put what you learn to work the Monday you get back. Questions: [email protected] Sponsorship: [email protected] Produced by CS²AI (Control System Cyber Security Association International).

The Cassandra Panel: OT Threat Intelligence from April to Now Bryan Singer revisits an April threat briefing to ask what changed in six months, and the answer is a lot. Georgia Tech's Saman Zonouz shares research on thousands of internet-exposed PLCs, web-enabled controllers, shared firmware code across vendors, and exposed solar inverters. Daryl Haegley explains why threat intel has to start with knowing what's inside the fence, and Brad Willet brings the asset owner's view: stray contractor routers, insider risk, and why no newsletter replaces a trusted network. Vivek dubbed it "the Cassandra Panel" for a reason. Guests: Saman Zonouz (Georgia Tech); Daryl Haegley (United States Department of the Air Force); Brad Willet (UPS) Host / moderator: Bryan Singer (Accenture) Chapters: 00:00 April recap: nothing sophisticated about it 03:53 Georgia Tech CPSEC and anonymous incident reporting 11:35 What changed since April 13:44 Looking inside the fence 16:08 How the Iranian campaign is progressing 18:37 Internet exposure and inventory 23:27 Not fighting the last war 24:51 Capacity gaps and web-enabled PLCs 28:53 Inside-out threat intelligence 33:38 Relationships as threat intel 37:08 Contractors, modems, and insiders 41:14 SBOM and shared firmware code 43:03 Impact-first risk and wrap-up Recorded at the (CS)²AI Online Symposium, "Level Zero: Visions & Reflections." Join us at Level Zero 2027, April 23–30 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta: pre-conference training, the Conflag Zero™ tabletop exercise, and three days of practitioner-led sessions built so you can put what you learn to work the Monday you get back.

Three veterans of critical infrastructure security trace how the field went from arguing that infrastructure was even a target to treating digital risk as an engineering hazard. Ginger Wright, Sarah Freeman, and Marc Sachs define cyber-informed engineering in plain terms, share real examples of consequences engineered out of a system, explain why adversaries already read your engineering documentation, and make the case that engineers don't need to become hackers to belong in this conversation. They close with why engineers should come to Level Zero. Guests: Sarah Freeman (MITRE); Marc Sachs (Center for Internet Security) Host / moderator: Ginger Wright (Idaho National Laboratory) Chapters: 00:00 Welcome and panel introductions 02:52 Why engineering is up first at Level Zero 04:24 From 'not a target' to target du jour 08:03 Y2K to WannaCry: when the OT/IT boundary became fiction 12:28 Engineering out the consequence (NIST 800-82 Rev. 3) 14:31 Why engineers belong at the table 19:01 Digital risk and defining CIE / CCE 22:13 Real examples of designed-out consequences 28:34 Where CIE runs into regulation 32:40 Engineer pushback and 'fighting the scenario' 37:01 Digital risk is just another hazard 40:01 The five whys, and why come to Level Zero Recorded at the CS²AI Online Symposium, "Level Zero: Visions & Reflections." Join us at Level Zero 2027, April 23–30 at Georgia Tech in Atlanta: pre-conference training, the Conflag Zero™ tabletop exercise, and three days of practitioner-led sessions built so you can put what you learn to work the Monday you get back. Questions: [email protected] · Sponsorship: [email protected] Produced by CS²AI (Control System Cyber Security Association International).

Solving the OT Talent Puzzle: A Career Roadmap from Three Industry Veterans Derek Harp sits down with Marcus Sachs (Center for Internet Security), Patrick Miller (Ampyx Cyber), and Christian Harter (UPS) for a candid conversation about breaking into — and building a career in — ICS/OT cybersecurity. The panel tackles the IT/OT divide, why "dropping your ego" matters more than any certification, how AI is reshaping the skills employers want, and why old-school, face-to-face networking still beats the resume-screening algorithms. Whether you're a plant engineer eyeing cybersecurity or a security pro trying to understand the physical world, this episode is a practical roadmap for finding your way in.