Industry Leaders Launch Non-Profit ICS Village to Raise Awareness of Industrial Control System Security Issues and Provide Hands-On Training

ICS Village to kick off non-profit at RSA USA 2018; Seeking sponsors
and industry leaders to support industry-first initiative

ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cybersecurity industry leaders Bryson
Bort, CEO of SCYTHE
and Chairman of GRIMM,
Beau
Woods, Cyber Safety Innovation Fellow at The
Atlantic Council and leader in the volunteer I Am The Cavalry
initiative, Larry
Vandenaweele, Cyber Security Manager at PwC Australia, and Thomas
VanNorman, Director of Application Engineering at Veracity
Industrial Networks, announced the launch of the non-profit
Industrial Control System (ICS) Village. The ICS Village is a traveling
interactive experience that showcases ICS technologies and highlights
the security controls that enable them to power the secure operations of
chemical processing plants, pulp and paper manufacturing facilities,
power generation systems, oil and gas processing, telecommunications
networks and other elements of critical infrastructure. The village is
designed to increase awareness and educate the public on protecting
these systems and facilities. The ICS Village is also developing an
engaging digital presence to broaden the reach beyond live events.

ICS security was notably thrust into the headlines in recent years when
hackers used automated malware to induce a power outage in Ukraine in
2015 and again attack its power grid in 2016.

The ICS Village delivers a safe, yet realistic environment where
researchers can learn to assess, enhance and defend industrial
environments using real components such as Programmable Logic
Controllers (PLC), Human Machine Interfaces (HMI), Remote Telemetry
Units (RTU), actuators and miniature robotic arms to simulate a
realistic environment by using components commonly found throughout
different industrial sectors. Offering a customized, simulated,
real-world environment for security researchers to interact with ICS
devices and systems, the ICS Village will kick off a national tour of
cybersecurity conferences starting with the 2018
RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, California on April 16-20,
2018.

“Our goal and focus is to build a stronger awareness of ICS security
issues that impact the infrastructure that we rely on daily. Researchers
don’t have regular access to this type of technology and we want to
provide the community with a jump start to tackle the growing issue of
ICS cybersecurity,” said Bryson Bort, CEO of SCYTHE and Chairman of
GRIMM. “It’s about education. We’re bringing more opportunities to gain
hands-on experience on how these systems work in real environments and
building out a platform that’s accessible to the security research
community and beyond.”

In addition to hands-on training to security research teams, the ICS
Village is developing a digital platform that will aid in the effort to
combat major, realistic threats to ICS, such as power grid hacks. The
ICS Village will make its debut in its current form at the 2018 RSA
Conference in RSA’s ICS
Sandbox. It will feature GRIMM’s
“Howdy Neighbor” model “smart” house that simulates how multiple
interactive smart home products can be hijacked by attackers of various
skill levels to expose real-world vulnerabilities in addition to live
speaking sessions from key ICS security thought leaders.

“By incorporating the ICS Village as a non-profit while elevating key
elements of the experience, we are enhancing the program to reach more
audiences domestically and beyond. So much education is needed to
address the broad range of ICS-related cybersecurity issues that exist
today,” said Tom Van Norman, ICS Village Founder and Director of
Application Engineering at Veracity Industrial Networks. “We need to
ensure that the security research community as well as the greater cyber
industry has access to the tools and training to mitigate ICS security
issues at a national scale.”

In addition to the founding members of the ICS Village, Parsons
Cyber has signed on as a Platinum Sponsor while Dragos
and Claroty
have signed on as Gold Sponsors. Silver Sponsors include Nozomi
Networks and Veracity.
Bronze Sponsors include Airbus,
CryptoniteNXT,
Cybati,
Gravwell,
and Unisys.
For details on how to become an ICS Village sponsor, please email [email protected].

For more information on the ICS Village including upcoming events and
appearances, please email [email protected].

About the ICS Village

We bring you a safe, yet realistic environment where you can learn on
how to assess, enhance, and defend your Industrial Environment. We bring
you real components such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Human
Machine Interfaces (HMI), Remote Telemetry Units (RTU), actuators,
miniature robotic arms, to simulate a realistic environment by using
commonly components throughout different industrial sectors. You will be
able to connect your machine towards the different industrial components
and networks and try to assess these ICS devices with common security
scanners, network sniffers to sniff the industrial traffic, and more!
Visit https://www.icsvillage.com.

Contacts

ICS Village, LLC
Christine Piry
[email protected]