critical infrastructure

See the following -

After Stuxnet: The New Rules Of Cyberwar

Robert L. Mitchell | Computerworld | November 5, 2012

Critical infrastructure providers face off against a rising tide of increasingly sophisticated and potentially destructive attacks emanating from hacktivists, spies and militarized malware. Read More »

How DoD Plans to Leverage Artificial Intelligence and Open Source to Improve Emergency Response and Disaster Relief

Some might not know it, but the US military plays a key role in US disaster response strategy and, accordingly, the Department of Defense (DoD) has prioritized its disaster response mission and is investing heavily towards increasing its capabilities and effectiveness. Technology is a big part of all modern DoD missions, and disaster response is no different. The most promising and transformative technology on the horizon for our future, and for the future of the DoD, is Artificial Intelligence (AI). So how exactly will the DoD leverage Artificial Intelligence technologies in order to meet the demands of the disaster response mission? Is a new Center of Excellence created by DoD, called the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Read More »

Increase in International Cyber Attacks Calls for National Testbed

HSD Foundation | The Hague Security Delta | October 24, 2016

On Friday 21st of October The United States was subjected to massive and widespread cyberattacks which disrupted website domains and internet traffic through DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks flood websites with traffic and impairs normal services. "The massive outage drew the attention of the FBI which said Friday that it was "investigating all potential causes" of the attack." Popular websites like Twitter, Amazon, Spotify and Netflix went down for some users on Friday...

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Infrastructure And Resilience --- The New Pride And Prejudice

I was going about my normal business the other day when an article from the Associated Press written by Matthew Daly And Hope Yen, and titled "Lawmakers: Ida damage shows need for infrastructure upgrades" landed in my inbox. I’m one of those weird people that sees “lawmakers” and “infrastructure” in a sentence, and am drawn to it with amused interest. Usually, I am interested academically…a lot of other times as a pure masochist…and still more often than not, like this time, with snarky anticipation. “Oh, what joyous, twisted misinformation do we have here?” The article summarizes quite aptly (kudos to Mr. Daly and Ms. Yen) the rationale applied for the monstrous, record-smashing infrastructure bills being batted about the House and Senate.

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Mid Atlantic Disaster Recovery Association (MADRA)

Since 1989, MADRA has provided a forum for the Mid-Atlantic's Business Continuity Planners (BCP), Continuity of Operations Professionals (COOP), Emergency Management, and the Disaster Recovery (DR) community to improve their skills through networking and education. As the regions oldest independent networking group, MADRA is dedicated to ensuring that people and organizations are better prepared to manage any type of disaster or emergency event.

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Resilience Must Be Blind to Catalyst - Part II

If this is the first time you are reading something from me, let me introduce you to a phrase I coined in the early 2000s: "resilience (and continuity) is blind to the catalyst." My oft-repeated comment was to present an alternative to the emergency management foundations that were creeping into the continuity lexicon, whereby contingency planning is typically done with a "commensurate with the hazard" or "capabilities-based" approach. Resilience is and must be viewed with a much higher level of consideration…and NOT limited to specific hazards or capabilities. As I most certainly just ruffled feathers of some of my dearest and most deeply respected emergency management professionals, let me explain.

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Rock Around The Resilience Wheel - Continuity of Operations Through Disruptive Change

As 2020 comes to a close we are still faced with myriad issues pertaining to public health, elections, economic duress and recovery, unemployment, and living under persistent, pendular change. Resilience has become a popular buzzword to get through these times but is utilized to mean very different things to people looking through very different lenses. Diverse definitions are great but at some point, at some higher and comprehensive perspective, a bow must be put around a common resilience baseline. In layman’s terms, resilience is getting through disruptions and change with some foresight and planning. Resilience matters regardless of the lens you are viewing it through. Covenant Park has coined several catchphrases over our several decades of resilience, risk, continuity, emergency management, security, and national and international planning and execution. Some of those phrases include:

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Successful Hacker Attack Could Cripple U.S. Infrastructure, Experts Say

Erin McClam | NBC News | February 19, 2013

A report tying the Chinese military to computer attacks against American interests has sent a chill through cyber-security experts, who worry that the very lifelines of the United States — its energy pipelines, its water supply, its banks — are increasingly at risk. Read More »

Sun Explosions & Space Hurricanes: The Silent Threat to Global Communications Systems

Staff Writer | RT | September 26, 2017

Plasma regularly escapes from the sun through eruptions on our star’s surface. Thankfully, the Earth is protected from these high energy particles due to the planet’s magnetic field – but they can result in potentially catastrophic ‘space hurricanes.' Even the smallest of particles exploding off the sun can have a huge impact in the development of so-called space hurricanes, due to a phenomenon known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability. It means a dense radiation zone, known as the Van Allen belts, created by solar wind particles, effectively lays siege to the Earth...

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Mid Atlantic Disaster Recovery Association (MADRA) to Host Black Sky Seminar

Event Details
Type: 
Seminar/Webinar
Date: 
August 19, 2021 - 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Given increasing threats to America’s critical infrastructure and a proposed infrastructure bill to address those threats, the Mid Atlantic Disaster Recovery Association (MADRA) will be hosting virtual meeting on August 19. The speaker at the meeting will be Mary D. Lasky, Chairman of the InfraGard National Disaster Resilience Council and BC Program Manager at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Lasky will outline the impacts of these threats that are also known as "Black Sky" events.

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