My previous post covered the key challenges that engineers face in order to insure defence of the UK’s National Critical Infrastructure and stability of crucial Safety-Critical Systems in the context of Cyber Security threats such as armed conflicts around the world. This time we can consider how international politics could have impact on homeland security as well.
As the UK Government put the Hinkley Point nuclear power station project under review, China’s ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming warned that wider relationships between the two countries are at risk: “Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a critical historical juncture… I hope the UK will keep its door open to China”. His Excellency Liu of course meant the open door to massive (up to 40 billion pounds) investment from China. But Conservative critics are apprehensive that having an open door to a crucial (nuclear) element of Critical National Infrastructure might not be necessarily good for the UK national security. They are of course worried not about an “open door” but about the “back door” i.e. point of potential vulnerability in the cyber defences of the future nuclear facility.
The IET’s Cyber Defence and Security seminar will look into the Hinkley point cyber security case study presented by Phil Litherland, Head of electrical, Control and Instrumentation Systems, Nuclear New Build Design Authority from EDF Energy, company that will operate the new nuclear facility to be build. Delegates will be able to consider in details ‘Cyber security provisions for the Hinkley Point nuclear plant project’, which is the topic of Phil’s presentation as part of a wider session on ‘Evolution of threats to the UK Critical National Infrastructure’.
Other notable speakers in this session include Andrey Nikishin - Kaspersky Lab’s Head of future technology who will share his view on ‘Industrial and National Infrastructure Cyber threats’ and Oleh Starodubov, from the Information Security Directorate of the Ukrainian Security Services, who will cover lessons from last year’s ‘Cyber Attack on the Ukrainian Electricity Grid and its significance in the Age of Cyber Warfare’. The IET is very pleased to be hosting this exciting event full of great case studies and food for thought!
