76: A (CS)2AI Fellows Panel: S4 Takeaways and a Look Ahead at Our industry

(CS)²AI Podcast Show: Control System Cyber Security

Today, Chris Blask, the Vice President of Strategy at Cybeats, and Patrick Miller, the CEO at Ampere, join Derek in an online seminar stimulated by a blog article Patrick wrote just after the last S4 conference.

Chris and Patrick are both (CS)²AI fellows who have attended many S4 events. In today’s online session, they review the latest S4 conference. They dive into various topics important for the industrial security and OT security communities, answer questions from listeners, and discuss the future of the cybersecurity industry.

S4 is one of the longest-standing annual cybersecurity conferences focused on control systems, OT, and ICS. Dale Petersen is the founder, creator, and MC of the S4 conferences.

Show highlights:

• Chris shares a main takeaway from this year’s S4 event.
• How technology is changing.
• Why more people are needed to make cybersecurity work going forward.
• Question: Are discussions of wireless security growing or declining at the conference? Is there a session (or sessions) dedicated to wireless yet?
• Question: Within all OT and IT cybersecurity professionals, what would be the ratio of OT cybersecurity real professionals?
• Why it is normal and expected not to know the answer to some things, and how to find the answer if there is something you don’t know.
• Question: Tribal knowledge is a real threat to OT/ICS security. The aging workforce in OT engineering is part of this problem. What is the best way for organizations to address this challenge?
• Chris and Patrick share their thoughts on executives taking the risk of solving ICS/OT security issues.
• Question: What are your thoughts on Ford applying for a patent on a car that can repossess itself?
• Chris and Patrick discuss metrics, risk management, and cyber insurance.
• Patrick and Chris dive into diversity, equity, and inclusion in the OT space.
• Question: When will we get past the notion that ICS pen-testing has to be a separate category?
• Question: Looking forward, what would you foresee as the big themes of S4/24?