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Utility Companies and Food for Thought

Utility Lines

Something that I keep on hearing from engineers (power, water, etc) on the SCADASEC mailing list is that they are more concerned about human error causing an outage than an attack over the internet. Most of the incidents that I hear about are operator error and they involve accidentally shutting down a computer system or perhaps configuring one improperly (The utility guys like to call these “cyber” incidents). When that happens things “go to hell in a hand basket” fast and people can and do die. They seem to be more concerned about those types of “cyber” incidents than they are the hacker threat… but they’re not getting it right?

The fact of the matter is that a malicious hacker could trigger any number of these “cyber” incidents either deliberatley or accidently, and the end result is the same. How do we get these guys to take the threat more seriously? I think its happening, but I don’t feel like its happening fast enough.

Adriel Desautels

Adriel Desautel Profile Picture
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
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Adriel is a recognized leader in the information security industry with over 20 years of professional experience. In 1998, he founded Secure Network Operations, Inc., home to the renowned SNOsoft Research Team, which helped shape today’s best practices for responsible vulnerability disclosure. Adriel pioneered the zeroday Exploit Acquisition Program (EAP), later integrated into Netragard, and has served as an expert witness in US Federal court.

In 2006, Adriel founded Netragard to deliver high-quality, realistic threat penetration testing, now known as Red Teaming, and has since expanded its offerings to include mobile application security, source code reviews, web application assessments, and more. As the primary architect behind Netragard’s innovative services, Adriel continues to push the boundaries of research-based cybersecurity.

Frequently sought as a subject matter expert, Adriel has been featured by Forbes, The Economist, Bloomberg, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, The Register, and has appeared in documentaries and authoritative books such as “Unauthorized Access” and “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends.” He is also a seasoned public speaker, presenting at leading conferences like Blackhat USA, InfoSec World, BSides, and the NAW Billion Dollar CIO Roundtable.