NERC’s grid security conference focuses on importance of collaboration

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) recently held its seventh annual grid security conference, GridSecCon 2017, in St. Paul, Minnesota, which focused on the importance of collaboration between industry, government, and stakeholders.

“Grid security depends on an enterprise-wide approach at every organization and at every level,” Gerry Cauley, president and CEO of NERC, said in the keynote address. “It requires the attention from the CEO level down to ensure that adequate grid security resources are devoted to addressing the greatest cyber and physical security risks.”

While grid security efforts have thus far been relatively successful, Cauley noted, the industry must continue to be vigilant.

During the two-day conference, participants from the United States and Canada discussed collaboration in response to potential grid security threats, industry partnerships with law enforcement, insider threats and geomagnetic disturbances and electromagnetic pulse research as well as other topics. The event also included an additional two days of training and briefings.

Other keynote speakers at the event included Ben Fowke, chairman of the board, president and CEO of Xcel Energy, and Patricia Hoffman, principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability at the U.S. Department of Energy.

“GridSecCon reinforces the value of developing a comprehensive cyber and physical security strategy for our industry,” Marc Sachs, senior vice president and chief security officer of NERC, said. “To mitigate constantly evolving cyber and physical security threats, we must remain vigilant and attentive, sharing information about new threats as rapidly as possible.”