Atlas International VP of Innovation writes an article calling for more attention to cyber security for civil infrastructure. He contends that we are not prepared. We are not aware of how unprepared we are. We are not aware of the cost to prepare. We are not aware of how damaging our unpreparedness could be. Cyber security is simply another risk management issue. When designing and building infrastructure, we are familiar with risk management trade-offs applied to materials selection, earthquake design, hurricane design, monitoring for infrastructure decay, and so forth. But infrastructure has new risks associated with the digital age.
We design and build using digital tools. And most infrastructure systems are now controlled by, monitored by, and personalized by, digital equipment.
And that equipment includes centralized computer systems, algorithms in the cloud, and devices at the edge (imbedded in the physical world at the point of user engagement). Therefore, digital/cyber security is now an integral part of our risk management ecosystem. Military infrastructure is more secure than civil infrastructure – by necessity for national security reasons. And the Department of Defense (DoD) has the budget to cover the cost of that security. Civil infrastructure has not had the same imperative, but now should.