Hack the Plant
Electricity. Finance. Transportation. Our water supply. In Hack the Plant, podcast host Bryson Bort looks for answers to the question: Does connecting these systems, and others, to the internet leaves us more vulnerable to attacks by our enemies? We often take these critical infrastructure systems for granted, but they’re all becoming increasingly dependent on the internet to function. From the ransomware threats of Colonial Pipeline to the failure of the Texas power grid, it is clear our interconnectivity is also a significant source of risk. Hack the Plant walks through the world of hackers working on the front lines of cyber security and public safety to protect the systems you rely upon every day. Hack the Plant is brought to you by ICS Village and the Institute for Security and Technology. ICS Village is a nonprofit that equips industry experts and policymakers with the tools to better defend our critical infrastructure. We educate people on critical infrastructure security with hands-on examples, not just nerd stuff. Catch us at an event near you! www.icsvillage.com. The Institute for Security and Technology is a nonprofit think tank with the mission to bridge gaps between technology and policy leaders to help solve these emerging security problems together. Learn more at securityandtechnology.org.
Episodes
Deputy Managing Director at the Cyber Readiness Institute Lessie Skiba joins host Bryson Bort to discuss the CRI’s new program connecting small- and medium-sized water utilities with cyber coaches to strengthen their resilience.
What if the most effective cybersecurity solution isn't a new piece of technology, but a human connection? How can we empower small businesses to tackle cyber threats, even with limited resources? And if Les...
Our host Bryson sits down with Colin Ahern and Kirk Herath, two of the only cybersecurity experts working in Governors’ offices in the United States. Colin was appointed Chief Cyber Officer of the State of New York by Governor Kathy Hochul in June 2022, and Kirk stepped into his role as Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted the same year. In their positions, Colin and Kirk are resp...
Bryson Bort is joined by Jim Montgomery, Director, Industrial Cybersecurity Solutions at TXOne Networks. TXOne provides network-based and endpoint-based products to tackle security vulnerabilities across industrial environments. With decades of IT security experience, Jim now leads TXOne’s work protecting Operational Technology environments across critical sectors like automotive, oil and gas, pharma, manufacturing, and semiconduct...
Bryson Bort sits down with Adam Robbie, Head of OT Threat Research at Palo Alto Networks, to pull back the curtain on OT threat research. With a background in electrical engineering, Adam’s first job in cybersecurity was at an IT help desk. He now leads a team dedicated to identifying, analyzing, and mitigating cyber threats targeting Operational Technology (OT) environments.
What are the top threats Adam is seeing in OT attacks? Wh...
Bryson Bort welcomes Sarah Powazek, Program Director of Public Interest Cybersecurity at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, to discuss the organization’s work providing cybersecurity resources for the public, and CyberCAN, a project to connect cities and nonprofits providing critical services.
How can cities play a larger role in protecting their communities? What are the biggest cybersecurity challenges facing no...
Welcome to season 5! Our host Bryson Bort sits down with Institute for Security and Technology (IST) Executive in Residence for Public Safety & Security Josh Corman. Josh previously joined us on season 1, episode 2 to discuss his experience founding I Am The Cavalry, a grassroots organization focused on the intersection of digital security, public safety, and human life.
Today, Josh walks us through his Cyber Civil Defense initiati...
For the final episode of the season, our host Bryson Bort reflects on four years and forty episodes of Hack the Plan[e]t, and picks a few favorites.
Episode 8, DoD and Critical Infrastructure: https://hack-the-plant.simplecast.com/episodes/dod-and-critical-infrastructure
Episode 10, The Congressman, The Commission and Our Critical Infrastructure: https://hack-the-plant.simplecast.com/episodes/the-congressman-the-commission-and-our-c...
Bryson is joined by Carter Manucy, Director of Cybersecurity at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to discuss rural electric cooperatives, the importance of collaboration, and the state of cybersecurity in the energy sector. With over two decades of experience in the sector, Carter was recently awarded E-ISAC’s prestigious Michael J. Assante Award for his leadership on initiatives to protect the grid and electric c...
Bryson is joined by Sara Patrick, President and CEO at the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) to discuss cyber threats, mitigation strategies, and the United States energy infrastructure system. A lawyer by training, Sara led MRO’s enforcement group and compliance monitoring team for 16 years before stepping into her position as CEO.
What risks does AI pose to maintaining a reliable grid? How does MRO build resilience into the ...
In this episode, Bryson sits down with MITRE EMB3D co-founder Niyo Little Thunder Pearson. For nearly 20 years, Niyo has been at the forefront of protecting critical infrastructure systems. He previously led incident response for American Express, directing the company’s Security Operations Center during the LulzSec and Anonymous attacks, and worked to develop an adversarial cyber defense program for the nation’s third largest gas ...
In this episode, Bryson sits down with Mark Montgomery, Senior Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. For three years, Mark served as Executive Director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, created by congressional mandate to develop strategic approaches to defending against cyber attacks. Now, he directs CSC 2.0, an initiative that works to implement the recommendations of the Commission.
What were the key recomm...
Joe Marshall is a Senior IoT Security Strategist at Cisco Talos Intelligence Group. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Joe helped coordinate a multinational, multi-company coalition of volunteers and experts to find a technological solution.
Bryson and Joe sat down to discuss his efforts in Ukraine, how he got the go-ahead from Cisco leadership, and more.
“They were like, yeah, we can't even get accurate timing to work on our tra...
In this episode, Bryson Bort is joined by Paul Shaver, Global OT Security Practice Lead at Mandiant / Google Cloud to discuss the cyber threat landscape. How did Paul’s military background play a role in his decision to start working with control systems? What is the difference between an advanced persistent threat and a regular threat? What does Paul think is the best way to protect against documented threats from nation-state act...
Claroty is a cybersecurity company that helps organizations to secure cyber-physical systems across industrial (OT), healthcare (IoMT), and enterprise (IoT) environments: the Extended Internet of Things (XIoT).
In this episode, Bryson Bort sits down with Claroty director of research and industrial control system (ICS) vulnerability expert Sharon Brizinov to discuss everything ICS.
What are the most common vulnerabilities threatening...
Psymetis creates Operational Technology (OT) security solutions that quickly and prevent electric grid outages and catastrophic infrastructure failures. Psymetis’ Werewolf system provides condition monitoring and threat mitigation for the power grid, detecting cyberattacks, equipment failures, and physical damage in real-time.
In this episode of Hack the Plant, Bryson sits down with Psymetis CEO Robert Shaughnessy to discuss his wo...
As America’s Cyber Defense Agency and the National Coordinator for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leads the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day.
In this episode of Hack the Plant, Bryson sits down with CISA Director Jen Easterly to discuss her work on leading CISA...
I’m joined by Jesse Whaley, the Chief Information Security Officer at Amtrak, for this episode of Hack the Plant. Amtrak is the nation's largest passenger rail service provider and one of the most complex and critical transportation systems in the world.
We discuss what it takes to oversee Amtrak’s digital assets and infrastructure, and what it takes to keep them secure.
“The company had a safety culture. Before every meeting bef...
I’m joined by Dan Ricci, founder of the ICS Advisory Project, for this episode of Hack the Plant.
The ICS Advisory Project is a free, open-source platform that helps asset owners across 16 critical infrastructure sectors stay secure by identifying threats in their environments.
“I saw a gap in the community. There's good data that's coming at us…but no one did anything to take and make that data more digestible through visualization....
I’m joined by Jason Healey, a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs, for this episode of Hack the Plant. Jason is a pioneer of cyber threat intelligence, with experience spanning fifteen years across the public and private sectors.
Today, we discuss a recent article Jason published at Lawfare, looking at 25 years of White House cyber policies, from the Clinton to the Biden admi...
I’m joined by David Patrick Emmerich, the Principal Cyber-Physical Range Architect at the University of Illinois, for this episode of Hack the Plant.
We’re here today to talk about RADICS, a DARPA project. RADICS stands for Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems. We discuss David’s role in building automated data collection and set up simulations and testing, and how the process of doing vulnerability disco...
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