Protecting critical assets in a hazardous world.
Torsten George (tgeorge@agiliance.com) is vice president of worldwide marketing at Agiliance, a provider of security software systems.
Recent news of an advanced persistent threat at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,1 a U.S. Department of Energy lab that studies nuclear fusion and biotechnology, and hosts one of the nation’s most powerful supercomputers, has once again brought the issue of cyber security to the top of not just the news, but the mind of many information technology (IT) and security experts in the energy market.
The cyber security challenge is becoming increasingly important for the people responsible for securing the electrical grid, as well as nuclear power generation facilities, oil refineries and gas pipelines. Considering the system complexity they are dealing with, their job isn’t easy. When combating network threats in the forms of viruses, trojans, and worms, many organizations fail to address vulnerable interfaces between their diverse systems or consider how their security infrastructure functions as a whole.
Integration is essential to managing today’s complex security systems. One option for IT administrators is to develop an information security risk management (ISRM) program that interconnects systems, processes and people, helps provide greater visibility, and enables operators to make more intelligent decisions as they relate to the security of an organization. An ISRM program enables organizations to increase system-wide efficiencies and reduce incidents, and ultimately the overall cost.