Ensuring Cybersecurity of Nuclear Power Plants to be Featured at IEEE Homeland Security Conference

Ensuring Cybersecurity of Nuclear Power Plants to be Featured at IEEE Homeland Security Conference

WASHINGTON (14 October 2011) – An emerging threat to U.S. nuclear power plants is a cybersecurity attack that disrupts operations or compromises nuclear safety. A security system to protect against such an attack is one of the topics that will be presented at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST 11) in November.

In the paper, “System-Aware Security for Nuclear Power Plants,” three Charlottesville, Va., researchers discuss how system-aware security can be combined with the nuclear turbine control system to avert the threat of cyber attacks, even if they have been built into the initial system components and triggered during maintenance, or activated by an insider.

“There are significant threats of embedded infections by the producers of equipment that support our nation's nuclear power plants that cannot be completely addressed by advancing perimeter security solutions,” wrote Rick Jones and Barry Horowitz of the University of Virginia, and Troy Nguyen of the Northrop Grumman Corp. “In this paper, we lay out a new systems engineering-focused approach for addressing these threats.”

Jones will present the paper during HST 11 at the Westin Waltham Boston in Waltham, Mass., USA, 15-17 November 2011. For more information and to register, visit www.ieee-hst.org or contact Robert Alongi at information@ieee-hst.org or +1 781-245-5405.

HST 11 will bring together global science and technology thought leaders to foster homeland security technology innovation. It will showcase selected technical papers highlighting emerging technologies in four tracks:

• Cybersecurity

• Attack and disaster preparation, recovery and response

• Land and maritime border security

• Biometrics, forensics and physical security

Additionally, the conference features business panels that address effective business strategies in the current homeland security market.

The HST 11 Technical Program Committee, which reviewed the papers, is made up of leading science and technology experts from academia, national laboratories, federally funded research and development centers, the federal government and industry.

HST 11 is produced by IEEE with technical support from the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, the IEEE Biometrics Council and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Raytheon, MITRE and IEEE-USA are providing organizational support.

More than 380 people attended the 2010 conference, including representatives from at least 11 foreign countries. Raytheon is the event platinum corporate sponsor, and Massport is the event gold corporate sponsor.

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