Show Notes
Wind energy is one of the most rapidly growing energy generation sources in the United States - how can these renewable systems stay resilient in the face of cyber attacks as the industry grows?
In this episode, we hear from Megan Culler and Keith Mecham of Idaho National Labs (or INL). Megan Culler is a Power Engineer and Researcher; Keith Mecham is a Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Engineer.
INL is a Federally funded research and development center (FFRDC): public-private partnerships which conduct research and development for the United States Government. They operate large infrastructure security programs that include wind, power, and telecommunication, as well as provide engineering and development support to the federal government.
How does wind fit into our broader energy infrastructure? What threats does cybersecurity present to renewable energy? How can industry work tougher for policymakers to keep our systems secure? Join us as we discuss these questions, and more.
“A big risk is people just don't understand the risks with these types of systems. I think that's starting to change, as we have larger and larger energy companies that already understand cybersecurity jumping into wind. We have projects from Royal Dutch Shell and BP and other energy companies. They're setting up huge wind farms, especially offshore. They understand cybersecurity because of their refineries and pipeline systems, better than a startup does. And we hope we see more of that bring some maturity to the industry.” -Keith Mecham
More from Hack the Plant
“There is so much tech in our food and agriculture industry now that is touching our food on some level… we are creating the potential for a foodborne illness to happen from a cyber attack that may not be noted.” – Kristin King
“Securing critical infrastructure is not one person’s job. You bring multiple people, multiple teams with different expertise to come together.” – Adam Robbie
“Security is not convenient. Nobody likes change. But at the same time, we have to be secure. Finding that middle ground is the challenge in my position.” - Andrea Haddad
“The fundamentals of cybersecurity are the fundamentals of good engineering and operations.” - Andrew Ohrt
“I think it really opened my eyes to how tightly coupled our system is and how vulnerable we are to these cascading failures.” - Natalie Sullivan