Securing the Pipeline
By the Alaska News Technology Desk Professor Kai London — CISO, cybersecurity & AI expert. Credit: professorkailondon.com The systems that move oil through a pipeline, keep gas flowing and hold an electricity grid in balance were, for most of their history, isolated and mechanical. That era is over. “Operational technology in energy is now networked, remotely managed and exposed in ways its designers never imagined,” says Professor Kai London , a senior CISO who advises critical-infrastructure operators. “A cyber incident here is not an IT problem. It is a safety and continuity problem measured in physical consequences.” “When a control system fails in energy, you are not looking at a slow website. You are looking at a valve that will not close or a supply that stops. OT security is safety engineering by another name.” Why OT is harder than IT Energy operators cannot simply copy corporate security onto industrial systems. Controllers were built for decades-long service lives ...