ICS security: safety and availability.

Security Week's ICS Cyber Security Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, which serves "energy, utility, chemical, transportation, manufacturing, and other industrial and critical infrastructure organizations," focused on the distinctive challenges of, and approaches to, securing industrial control systems (ICS).

The conference opened just after US authorities warn that the Dragonfly threat group (also known as "Energetic Bear") is actively engaged in spearphishing operations against utilities, principally electrical power organizations. The campaign appears to be in its reconnaissance phase. A similar warning was delivered last week in Belfast by Ciaran Martin, head of GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre, who said that, while the NCSC had successfully blocked attempts to penetrate Northern Ireland's grid, the attackers could be expected to return.

The issues for the grid, and this holds true for ICS as a whole, are distinctively those of ensuring safety and availability. Our coverage follows the presentations and discussions we heard in Atlanta.