North American Electric Reliability Corporation
TO: CIRRUS Division Team Members
FROM: CIRRUS Division Assistant Director
SUBJ: Rapid Response Tasker (RRT) #7
DUE: Original Answer – minimum expectation by Week 7 Saturday
Colleague Responses – minimum expectation by Week 7 Tuesday
BACKGROUND
At the latest CISA staff meeting, there was a round-table discussion on the state of the energy infrastructure and associated initiatives to help improve the current energy infrastructure. This round-table discussion came about based on the Director\\\’s announcement that CISA has been asked by the DHS Secretary to become a DHS representative to the Grid Security Exercise (GridEx) working group that is hosted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
NERC\\\’s GridEx is an opportunity for utilities to demonstrate how they would respond to and recover from simulated coordinated cyber and physical security threats and incidents, strengthen their crisis communications relationships, and provide input for lessons learned. The exercise is a bi-annual voluntary exercise that provides participants the opportunity to take part at a level that reflects their available resources and objectives while being consistent with the exercise scenario. GridEx will also help participants strengthen their capabilities to respond to and recover from severe events affecting the reliable operation of North America\\\’s electric grid.
Since CISA is now an active member of the GridEx working group, the Director has requested some detailed background on the current electrical grid. This background information will be made available to all CISA Divisions so that all CISA senior leadership can be as fully informed as possible if called upon to serve in the place of the Director for any GridEx-related meetings, document reviews, exercises, etc.
The Director has tasked the CIRRUS Division to provide the background point paper to provide a basic overview of the current energy infrastructure and related issues/challenges/etc. I will consolidate your feedback/comments to develop our CIRRUS Division point paper back to the Director\\\’s staff for action closure.
RAPID RESPONSE TASKER #7
Discuss the \\”energy infrastructure\\” as it relates to critical infrastructure. How is the \\”energy infrastructure\\” defined in terms of critical infrastructure; that is, what are the characteristics/components of the energy infrastructure that makes it of interest to those within the critical infrastructure community? What would you suggest as the top three challenges/ problems/ vulnerabilities associated with the current energy infrastructure configuration? What might be some potential — and realistic — steps or options (if any) for those of us working within the field of critical infrastructure to potentially pursue to enhance the current electrical grid infrastructure?
The following links serve as starting points for some potentially relevant information to this tasking
DELIVERABLE FORMAT
Post your answer with supporting in-text citations and a reference list (in APA 7th edition format) to the Discussions page / Week 7 forum / CIRRUS RRT #7 topic folder.
Remember, there\\\’s also a minimum expectation for you to provide at least two of your own comment/feedback responses from among your colleague\\\’s posted answers.
As always, let me know if you have any questions.
// signed //
Assistant Director, CIRRUS Division
Requirements: 1-2 pages |
Answer preview to North American Electric Reliability Corporation
APA
300 WORDS
