Burns & McDonnell/1898 & Co.
Victor Atkins is Director, Executive Advisory Services for Industrial Cybersecurity at Burns & McDonnell/1898 & Co. Mark Mattei is Director, Industrial Cybersecurity Managed Security Services at Burns & McDonnell/1898 & Co.
It is clearer each day that as the grid opens itself up to more kinds of distributed energy sources, it becomes more vulnerable to cyberattacks. It is a complex problem exacerbated by the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), which while unlocking opportunities for efficiency gains and cost savings, adds to the consequent cybersecurity risks requiring advanced threat protection.
Enter 1898 & Co., a part of Burns & McDonnell, whose cyber professionals are adept at getting their arms around the engineering and logistics of the whole of the IT and OT threat vectors faced by energy and utilities companies in this decarbonization revolution. It is a huge lift, but one the company is built for.
Explaining this multifaceted situation here are 1898 & Co.'s Victor Atkins, Global Director of Industrial Cybersecurity Executive Advisory Services and Mark Mattei, Global Director of Industrial Cybersecurity for Managed Security Services. These experts have a lot to say.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: Victor, talk about how you got into the cybersecurity world.
Victor Atkins: I have a master's in philosophy. I started in the U.S. intelligence community not long after 9/11 to work in counterterrorism. Then I moved to the Department of Energy to focus on countering nuclear terrorism. I wanted to understand the nuclear weapons program and expertise at the National Laboratories.