Does your team have a Cyber Security moment?
This was the question posed by Terwase Tortiv-Ato and Duncan Hui during their presentation to the IET Central London Network at Savoy Place, on the subject of Railway Cyber Security Integration. Disclosure: as a rail professional I recognise the concept of having a Safety or Values Moment at the start of each team meeting, where we discuss a learning point to reinforce our commitment to maintain our industry position as one of the safest railways in Europe. But I confess that I have never witnessed Cyber Security being an up front topic for discussion. What followed was an interesting lecture on the need for integration and the challenges practitioners face.
Why do we need Railway Cyber Security Integration? Traditionally, engineers involved in the disciplines of Physical Security and Cyber Security would operate in silos, with different budgets, management structures, and regulations despite a common goal; often the controls to mitigate against an attack comprise of vastly different technologies and activities. Integrating both strands has the potential to reduce costs, share controls and implement a common response.
Terwase and Duncan introduced us to the four stages of an Integrated Risk Assessment approach:
- Asset Impact Assessment
- Risk Analysis
- Mitigations
- Operations and Maintenance
Each stage was discussed in turn, leading to a real-life example based on a Rail Operating Centre.
In our day-to-day usage of transport, we are perhaps used to seeing physical manifestation of security measures e.g. Bollards. How often do we consider that what may seem like a trivial Cyber Security event could lead to one with much wider consequences? And do we stop to think that the physical and cyber security domains are interlinked? Let me know in the comments below and please follow the Central London Network on X (Twitter) and Facebook.
Watch the Lecture on IET TV here:
https://tv.theiet.org/?videoid=17979
Did you know that Savoy place has a 24/7 webcam? https://www.theiet.org/about/our-venues/iet-london-savoy-place-webcam