This Week in Critical Infrastructure, we bring you the just-published guidelines from the Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO) Standards Org., Tesla’s response to Chinese hackers, some initial reactions to the train crash in New Jersey, and reports on blackouts in Australia and Puerto Rico.
ISAO Standards Organization Releases Initial Voluntary Guidelines for ISAOs
On Friday, September 30, the ISAO Standards Organization released its first set of published voluntary guidelines. Formed by a DHS initiative as a partnership between the University of Texas at San Antonio and LMI Government Consulting in Northern Virginia, the ISAO Standards Org. has developed four sets of guidelines thus far covering formation and operation of ISAOs, as well as government tools and programs of relevance for information sharing groups.
Tesla Responds to Chinese Hack with Major Security Upgrade
Andy Greenberg, writing for Wired, reports on new security upgrades being implemented by Tesla Motors. This series of upgrades comes in response to reports from Chinese researchers at the firm Tencent that they successfully managed to manipulate the driving systems of a Model S through the car’s WiFi.
Puerto Rico’s Blackout and National Resilience
In a blog post for the Huffington Post, Dante Disparte, CEO of Risk Cooperative, writes on the recent blackout in Puerto Rico. Disparte argues that this episode, along with water issues in Flint, Michigan, is emblematic of the critical infrastructure deterioration that looms over national resilience in the United States.
South Australia’s Blackout Explained
From The Guardian, Michael Slezak discusses the extreme weather events that precipitated a massive power outage across the entire state of South Australia on Wednesday. In one of the most severe storms to hit the nation in the last half-century, 22 high-voltage pylons were knocked out of service.
The Hoboken Train Crash: Here’s What Comes Next
Aarian Marshall, writing for Wired, provides an early look at the devastating train crash in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Thursday, September 29. While too early to provide information on causes of the crash, Marshall provides an overview of the investigation process to come, as well as a brief summary of Positive Train Control (PTC) systems.