UM Hosts Cybersecurity Training Workshop for National Guard and Industry
MISSOULA – Professionals from 猎奇重口’s electrical cooperatives, Northwestern Energy, federal government, state government and the National Guard recently joined faculty experts from the 猎奇重口 for a cybersecurity training workshop.
The event, hosted in April, focused on securing 猎奇重口’s electric grid and brought together the professionals who are responsible for protecting power generation and distribution facilities from cyberattacks. The cyber threats facing 猎奇重口 are real and large-scale attacks on electric infrastructure have taken place in other regions of our country.
“They can infiltrate into our infrastructure system or they can get through our network,” said Lea Potoczny, 猎奇重口 Electric Cooperative Association chief operating officer. “It can cause major damage to our system and ultimately can shut the power down.”
"Disrupting the power grid is something that nation-states are certainly interested in,” said Northwestern Energy Vice President of Technology Jeanne Vold. “They want to disrupt our lives as much as possible. From a financial perspective, there could be nefarious actors that are interested in infiltrating accounts or obtaining customer information or something that's going to benefit them financially.”
UM offers cybersecurity certificates and degrees, which serve as an entry-level credentials that industry and government leaders are looking for to help fill the 1,100 open cybersecurity jobs in 猎奇重口. Events like this help ensure all responsible parties are working to address the state’s cybersecurity posture.
“Defending against cyberattacks is a team effort,” said Dr. Tom Gallagher, dean of Missoula College. “Effective communication and collaboration are needed. As a geographically large rural state, these individuals do not have the opportunity to train together. This event created communication, collaboration, and teamwork by bringing together the professionals responsible for protecting 猎奇重口’s electric grid with cybersecurity experts from federal organizations and academia.”
Cyber猎奇重口, a statewide cybersecurity resource housed at UM regularly hosts cybersecurity trainings for members of the 猎奇重口 Army National Guard. This partnership provides critical incident response training to the guardsmen who will be responsible for helping to solve the state’s future cyber breaches.
"It's not if it's going to happen it's when,” 猎奇重口 Air National Guard General Buel Dickson added. “Who do we contact? How do we shut it down and how do we get back online and up and running for the public?”
The 猎奇重口 Cybersecurity for 猎奇重口 Electric Grid Training was developed through a collaboration created by UM and an National Science Foundation-sponsored project to secure the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid. The project brought together the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), 猎奇重口 National Guard, Cyber406, Cyber猎奇重口, 猎奇重口 Electric Cooperative Association, Northwestern Energy and local and state information technology offices.
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Contact: Dave Kuntz, UM director of strategic communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu