Cyber Security at ChemITC Conference

Last week I receive an email notice via ACC@smartbrief.com that the American Chemistry Council’s ChemITC Conference at the end of this month would have a significant focus on cyber security issues. Thanks to Bridgette Bourge at ChemITC I received a copy of the just released program for that conference. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that ChemITC is working hard to keep their members up to date on the ever changing world of cyber security. The four day conference will be held September 28th thru October 1st at the IBM Executive Conference Center in Palisades, NY. Registration is still open. According to the ACC website this program will “appeal to all chemical company IT executives and their senior thought leaders”. The cyber security portion of the program does not get started until the second day of the conference and even that is mainly an introduction of the ChemITC working groups that are looking at cyber security issues for the chemical industry. There will be a brief update on the work being done by each working group. The third day of the program, however, has lots of interesting presentations on cyber security issues. The first program of the day is a one hour ‘conversation’ with FBI Supervisory Special Agent Frank Torkel from the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. That conversation will look at the current state of cyber crime. DHS will provide two updates later that day, one from the National Cyber Security Division and the other from the Chemical Sector Specific Agency. There will be two industry lead discussions on cyber security issues related to CFATS. The first will be on Day 3 by Keith Lichtenwalner, from Air Products and Chemicals. The second will be on Day 4 by Mark Gandy, from Dow Corning. While this conference will not be addressing any of the nut and bolt (or should I say ‘coding’) level issues of cyber security, it will provide valuable insight into the management level issues that are important for planning and budgeting for the cyber security challenges facing high-risk chemical facilities.