Cyber Senate recently had the opportunity to catch  up with Rick Peters, CISO, Operational Technology North America with Fortinet, to discuss their involvement in the rail sector, how they are helping and to elaborate further on their planned presentation for the May 12/13th conference Rail Cybersecurity USA in Arlington VA. www.railcybersecurityusa.com

Mr Peters will be discussing “Safe Available Secure: Five Essentials to Keep the Rail Sector on Track.”
Like many industrial environments, rail systems have been in operation for decades.  Keeping services on time and available, along with providing safety to passengers and cargo have been a staple.  As rail systems add digital or cyber connectivity to their environment, they introduce efficiency gains but also take on risk.

In late 2021, new cybersecurity guidelines for rail transit were introduced to shore up critical infrastructure following a year of headlines regarding ransomware attacks.  There are five cybersecurity essentials important for keeping rail systems on track to maintain safe, available and secure services.  During this session, we will explore how you can innovate securely by incorporating these principles into your cybersecurity strategy including:

·         Balancing modernization priorities such as Safety and Reliability, Ease and Comfort, Smart Transportation, and Customer Experience

·         Understanding known and unknown vulnerabilities worthy of immediate attention

·         Integrating and controlling access to the digitally connected IT and OT systems

·         Investing in a cybersecurity framework to support a distributed architecture

·         Recognizing cybersecurity is a team sport and partnerships matter

Rick brings the Fortinet OT-CI team more than 37 years of cybersecurity and global partnering experience working across foreign, domestic, and commercial industry sectors at the National Security Agency (NSA).  As Fortinet’s Operational Technology North American CISO, he delivers cybersecurity defense solutions and insights for the OT/ICS/SCADA critical infrastructure environments.  Prior to Fortinet, Rick led development of cyber capability across Endpoint, Infrastructure, and Industrial Control System technologies at the agency.  Previously, Rick also served as an executive leader supporting the Information Assurance Directorate at the NSA.  Earlier in his career, he served in a broad range of leadership and Engineering roles including Chief of Staff for the NSA Cyber Task Force and a 5-year forward liaison charged with directing integration of cyber and cryptologic solutions for U.S. Air Force Europe, Ramstein AFB, Germany.